And Then You Came Along
by A-iroha
Summary: AU. Along with his mother's sudden decision to get married, Tsuna found himself with a new father and brother - who was unfortunately also his schoolmate and crush.
1. of blonds and brunets

**of blonds and brunets**  
>家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN! © 天野明; Beta-ed by <span>AlixNight<span>

Sawada Tsunayoshi just had one of the worst days of his life. For one, he managed to score himself a very frightening detention session with the head of the Disciplinary Committee, Hibari Kyouya.

Hibari proclaimed that the detention Tsuna got was actually due to his mindless running around in the hallways without changing out of his outdoor shoes and squealing like a girl. It seemed more like Hibari was just bending the truth.

For one, he might have yelled, but he definitely didn't scream, let alone squeal. Hibari was definitely exaggerating at least a little bit. All that happened this morning was that Tsuna overslept a little and to escape the wrath of the scariest guy on campus, he had rushed to Namimori High School.

Even though he made it on time before the bell, he broke a few of the other rules while he was at it and still got in trouble.

Thinking about this, a depressed Tsuna tugged at the sleeves of his sweater to cover his bare arms. He now had several new wounds and bruises on his body – adding to the large amount of healing wounds and scars that he had already acquired – since he met with the famous delinquents during lunch break when he went to the vending machine behind the school building.

Not only that, the bullies also succeeded in extorting all his lunch pocket money from him and when he returned to class, he found out that the lunch box he spent two hours to prepare this morning, was gone. Even the container was missing.

So while his stomach was protesting by rumbling loudly, Tsuna forcefully dragged his tired body through the Namimori streets under the sweltering summer heat until he finally reached that familiar looking house he spent the last seventeen years of his life in.

"I'm home," Tsuna announced when he stepped pass the doorway and kicked off his shoes, intending to go straight up to his room. He was so tired that he felt like he could fall asleep right where he was standing. He didn't think that there would ever be something that he hated more than school.

On a side note, there was only one thing that he looked forward to everyday despite all the bullying and criticism he was receiving from almost every single person in school.

He had a bit of a crush.

However, it was not the school idol Sasagawa Kyoko that his friends predicted. He wanted to give others this impression and who was a better choice than the school idol?

Besides, it was a common rumor that Kyoko had a really scary older brother who insisted for all of his sister's suitors fight against him one on one in boxing. Needless to say, many of them ended up in the hospital with severe life threatening injuries. Despite his terrible situation, Tsuna still enjoyed the act of living.

There was just no way that he could ever admit to anyone that the person that he liked was actually a guy, much less his senior in school, Vongola Giotto.

He couldn't even imagine what his friends would say to him if they found out that he liked guys. And yes, he had accepted the fact that he is in fact, gay, even though he was still far from being proud of it.

Besides, there was no possible way that Giotto liked him back. The brunet wasn't even sure if Giotto knew of his existence. If there were two words to describe the blond, Tsuna was sure that it would be 'perfectly straight'. And exactly like what he just said, there was no way someone like Giotto would ever like someone as imperfect, stupid and clumsy as him.

This was just purely a one-sided love.

"Tsu-kun, you're finally home! Come over here." Tsuna's mother, Sawada Nana, gestured to the empty seat opposite her at the dining table. "Before I leave tomorrow, I would like to make sure you take good care of the house for the next three months."

"What do you mean? Three months? Are you going somewhere?"

Nana blinked twice in confusion before breaking out in a nervous laugh when she recalled that she hadn't mentioned anything about her plans to Tsuna yet.

"Eh? Don't tell me that I haven't told you all about it yet? I met Iemitsu three months ago and both of us fell in love. A few weeks ago, he finally proposed to me and we decided to get married. The wedding is tomorrow and both of us planned to go on a honeymoon straight after the ceremony, we even bought the tickets and made all the necessary arrangements already."

Tsuna gaped at his mother's enthusiasm. He really failed to understand his mother during such times, how could she forget to tell him something so important? He had never even heard of his mother saying the name 'Iemitsu' once before today.

Moreover, if she met that guy called Iemitsu three months ago, and he proposed a few weeks ago, then it meant that they were only dating for a few months. Tsuna certainly didn't think that it was enough time for two people to truly understand each other, let alone get married.

"Iemitsu has a son too! He said that his son is attending the same school as you. See how well fate is working out? And, his name is..." Nana rubbed her temples gingerly as she tried desperately to recall the name of her Iemitsu's son.

Tsuna sighed inwardly. He was totally not shocked to hear that the Iemitsu guy was actually married once before. Or that he actually had a son that was the almost his age. Or studying in the same school as him. There were many possible candidates that could fulfill all these conditions.

Besides, if you view this situation from another perspective, it could also mean that Iemitsu had many things that were common with his mother. And that might be a good thing because people are in need of common things so they would be able to connect to each other.

Not that he knew much about love, bonding with your other half and other silly little love notions like that. Tsuna never really believed in silly things like that before and it felt weird that unlike him – his mother was totally into love, horoscopes, destiny, and whatnot.

"Tsu-kun? What are you thinking about?" Nana mentioned offhandedly while folding the dull pink apron and setting it aside. "You know, you have to go upstairs and change out of your school uniform right now. Papa and Nii-san will be arriving soon!"

Tsuna felt his eye twitch at his mother's intimate way of addressing Iemitsu and his son. He hadn't even met the guy yet, but his mother was already so happy. Did she even realize she had forgotten about her one and only son when it came to such a big decision like this?

Still, they would be married by tomorrow.

But even after being told, Tsuna still found it hard to believe that he had to call someone Father overnight. His father abandoned them when Tsuna was four. There was no one for him to call that name by anymore.

"Ah, they arrived!" Nana clapped her palms to her cheeks when she heard the doorbell ring and quickly rushed to the mirror, making sure that she looked decent enough, before opening the front door with a large, friendly grin. Tsuna grimaced. "Iemitsu! Giotto-kun!"

He perked up at the mention of the familiar name and blinked in surprise. There was only one person by that name in his school and it had to be... but it just can't be, right? It wasn't possible.

As if oblivious to the dark atmosphere around Tsuna, the blond stepped into the house and greeted the Sawada family. "Good evening, Nana-san. I'm very happy to be here today, and I'll living here from now on. Please take good care of me, Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna felt his eyebrows twitch and his face turned a slight shade of red as a voice inside his mind shouted that this was a chance for Tsuna to grow closer to Giotto. Only there was no way for that to ever come true – good things never ever happen to him – and the brunet failed to understand why this shoujo manga situation was appearing in real life.

Not that he especially liked any of those lovey-dovey stories. Or read so many of them that he was able to recite their contents backwards in a single breath. He just accidentally picked one up at the store, and flipped through it once. He couldn't even recall what the title was anymore.

Probably.

Nana laughed nervously as she fingered the hem of her skirt, oblivious to Tsuna's discomfort at the close proximity with the strangers. "I guess I forgot to tell you this earlier too but I suggested that the four of us should stay together after the wedding but as you know, this house has been left to us by Grandpa and we can't sell it off so Iemitsu sold his apartment instead. Therefore, Giotto-kun would be staying here with you."

"HIEEE? A-Alone?" Tsuna gaped.

His mother and Iemitsu would be gone by tomorrow night, straight after the wedding ceremony, and he would be living all alone with his crush. Now, he would be able to see Giotto not only in school but at home as well. And this might actually be the first time for him to speak to Giotto – the wheels turned inside of Tsuna's head as he resisted a cry of joy.

Tsuna glanced over at his mother, who was smiling pleasantly at Iemitsu. She seemed to be so blissful that it made Tsuna envious for a short moment. Would the day when Giotto smile at him ever arrive?

"Make sure that you treat Giotto well and take care of him properly, Tsu-kun."

The brunet flashed one of his brightest smiles back towards his mother without much thought. He had no idea how his mother could expect him to act normal around Giotto? It was impossible.

But then again, she didn't know of his true feelings since he himself had never mentioned anything about Giotto before. Not even once. He couldn't really blame her for being so naïve, it was in her nature to do so. But for once, Tsuna might actually get something positive out of this.

xXxXx

'This is the worst scenario ever possible,' Tsuna groaned mentally as he stared at the scene before him. The two blonds were sitting beside each other rather uncomfortably on the small couch – one of them was busy reading a 671 page long book whereas the other was busy talking animatedly with his mother.

The brunet himself was sitting on the cold marble floor, staring up at Nana who was laughing cheerily as she held out a plate of fruit to Iemitsu. He accepted it with a large goofy grin.

His mother hadn't even offered him so much as half slice of apple yet.

"I took the whole month planning, but I've finally decided! Giotto-kun will be staying in the room opposite of Tsu-kun's bedroom. I have cleared out that room earlier today and you can unpack as soon as you settle in. Tsu-kun will show you to the room later," Nana smiled in a way that reflected her ditsy character perfectly.

Tsuna tried his best to prevent himself from rolling his eyes sarcastically. There was only one other spare bedroom in the house and that was the room that Nana assigned to Giotto.

Was there really much thought spent behind the issue?

Giotto looked up from his book and thanked Nana briefly before going back to ignoring the other inhabitants in the room. Tsuna felt a chill go up his back from being ignored by not only his crush but also his own mother.

"Hey Giotto, how many times must I tell you that you must treat the people around you nicer? They are important, you know. You should smile more and not always put on that sour expression," Iemitsu reprimanded Giotto and tried to snatch away the book.

"It doesn't matter," Giotto snapped as he flipped over another page, his eyes scanning through the page quickly before his fingers moved to flip onto yet another page. "I don't like pretending to be happy when I'm actually not. The sheer thought of doing so irks me."

Iemitsu glared darkly at his son. "How many times have I told you that you shouldn't say things like that? Can't you be a little more outgoing and sociable? Try to make friends or something."

Giotto returned the look his father was giving him. "There's no need for me to do so," he insisted. "Unlike in books, life contains many uninteresting characters who puts on facades all day long. And it's tiring to be around them. Just like you, Father."

"Um..." Nana fidgeted nervously as she felt the amount of negative energy being emitted from both Iemitsu and Giotto, and wondered if the parent and child were actually on bad terms.

She suspected that a fight might break out if she didn't separate them soon. She knew that she had to do something to give them a period of time to cool down.

"Tsu-kun, it's pretty late already. If you don't mind, can you please show Giotto to his room?"

Hearing his mother's instructions, Tsuna immediately stood up. He had been waiting for his mother to say that one sentence for ages. Not that he did not want to spend any more time together with his new family members, but it was eleven at night already and he still had to attend his mother's wedding tomorrow. Now was the perfect chance for him to catch up on all the insufficient sleep he acquired throughout the week.

Of course, he was not going to complete his mathematics assignment mainly because he was already sleepy and he knew that he would get all the answers wrong anyway, or so he told himself. There was no need for him to waste any effort. Simple, and sweet.

Giotto made his way over to the bottom of the staircase where the luggage was at and grabbed his bag while waiting for the brunet to walk over before following him up the stairs.

"Giotto-san, the room that Mom was referring to is over there," Tsuna pointed at the first room on the left. The brunet then turned to go into his own room, hand pausing on the doorknob for a short moment. "And my room is right opposite yours, so if you need anything you know where to find me."

"I see," Giotto muttered and moved to his room and stalked into the – his – room. "You can go to sleep now. I can handle the unpacking all by myself. And just call me Giotto. After all, we are going to be brothers soon."

Tsuna looked away, his face turning a little red from Giotto's intense stare. Truthfully, he never knew much about Giotto, seeing as he never really spoken to the blond before and Giotto always seemed to have this air around him that didn't allow others to approach him easily.

Antisocial.

Tsuna wondered whether that was really the right word to describe the blond. If he had to make a choice, he would say that it was 'unapproachable' instead.

That single word alone wrapped up all the death glares the blond gave his classmates and fan-girls, as well as that dark aura he always emitted.

Giotto paused at the door frame, taking a moment to study the new room that would be his from this moment onwards. The baby blue curtains and bed sheets, the small table at a corner of the room – an extremely normal room, arranged exactly like how his old room was.

To actually be able to make this place resemble that lone room in that rundown apartment so much, it seemed like where Sawada Nana placed her thoughtfulness was not into choosing the room, but into decorating it. Giotto pushed his luggage into a corner of the room and turned to meet a pair of wide caramel eyes.

"Good night, Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna gasped and quickly replied with the first logical thing that came into his mind. "You too, Giotto."

xXxXx

**Author's notes:** And just when I thought that I was slowly leaving the KHR G27 fandom and moving on, this idea appeared. I've returned back to this fandom once again! Thank you to myself for being too bored and reading nothing but BL for the past three days. Oh well, I shouldn't complain so much since I decided to write it anyway. (finds out that she is still very much in love with G27)

I'm not sure how much time and effort I can put into this, with all my other ongoing fanfiction and upcoming entrance examinations that I need to study hard for. Also, I want to write longer chapters than my previous fanfiction so that also means that the time I need to use to type out each chapter will increase ;D


	2. of wedding and phobias

**Rinatsu **Well I felt that Tsuna should be bullied a little bit more. Joking, it's more fun when Giotto doesn't keep to his nice guy personality all the time. Those two will seem more like brothers in that case, right? **EK12 **Haha thanks for the review and thanks for reviewing again! **Fai Senri **Sure thing, it's fun to type G27 too ;P **mangaromance **I'll put in my best effort and get Chapater two done as soon as possible. **Aki Sou **Right, I'll post the other chapters soon, after I get them done. g**27 is love **G27 is indeed love! **Neko-Chan1827** Well, Nana will not be herself if she isn't her usual ditzy self right? Three months is a long time, and they are all alone in that big big house ._. They'll get closer, definitely. **GhoulTears **Thanks for the review and the luck as well ^^ **kate-sama **Sure. I'm glad you love this.

**of wedding and phobias**  
>家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN! © 天野明; Beta-ed by <span>AlixNight<span>

A dull thud reverberated through the wooden floorboards of the Sawada residence at 9.30 a.m. on another mundane Saturday morning. Tsuna pushed himself up into a sitting position, lips pulled into a grimace as he rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head.

It wasn't everyday that the brunet would fall off his bed – in fact it had been a whole week since he last did – but _god_, it hurt.

Groaning at his lack of luck, Tsuna put on a miserable pout and kicked off his long sweatpants, deciding to trade them for a pair of comfortable looking shorts instead.

It was summer now and the brunet was certain that he definitely did not want to faint from a heatstroke – like what had been happening to him for the past three years because he stubbornly refused to remove any of his unneeded layers – but now that he was basically living together with Giotto under the same roof, he did not want to appear uncool, eccentric or pathetic, like how he normally (really) was.

He wanted to leave a good impression.

Contemplating about this, Tsuna wadded his dirty laundry and held it in one hand while the other was used to grab at the doorknob. Upon hearing the soft click signaling the lock being turned, Tsuna flinched.

Either he acquired the legendary illness known as The Summer Flu when he was climbing up that flight of steps last night, or he had became extremely forgetful due to the lack of sleep (of which Tsuna believed fervently that it was the latter) – because he _totally _did not remember shutting his door, much less locking it.

Besides Nana was utterly and totally and absolutely against family members closing and locking doors in an apartment because, well there was just something about trust issues and less chances for family bonding, and Tsuna was sure that he knew better than to rebel against one of the house rules that Nana set.

Because his mother was just that scary when it came to the part on following through with the different rules and regulations.

Using his left foot, Tsuna pushed the door so the opening was large enough for the brunet to fit through. It wasn't like he could do much about his carelessness – all he could hope for was that his mother was still sound asleep, no matter how unlikely that seemed to be – and he could get away with it.

"Good morning."

Tsuna's head snapped up almost instantly from hearing the smooth baritone – not because he recognized it, but precisely because he was unable to identify the owner of the voice based on hearing alone that he looked up – and the first thing he noticed was the disheveled mop of tousled blond hair, partially shielding eyes which were currently locked in a fierce one-sided staring competition with his own.

Not to mention all that Italian-y goodness contained in those sharp features. Or that dark vest the other was wearing, of which Tsuna was one hundred and one percent sure that it had the exact same design as the clothing he saw in the front page of last week's fashion magazine that his mother bought. Or that white dress shirt that actually looked (was) branded, rolled right up to the elbows, the pure color complimenting Giotto's complexion and Tsuna found his eyes roaming down Giotto's body involuntarily.

Like that tight black dress pants that appeared to be new, and also that superbly _drop-dead gorgeous look_ that was so attractive that Tsuna couldn't help but ogle at the...

Wait – rewind, retake, turn time back. What the _hell_ had he just been doing?

"Tsunayoshi."

The brunet swiftly snapped back into reality and, for the lack of a better description, started shrieking in his trademark manner. He could not believe that he had just, for a seemingly short moment, forgotten the fact that Giotto was staying in the room opposite his and ignored the greeting directed at him.

And Tsuna just came to terms with the fact that although he might not have really given this topic much thought last night, but there was a high chance how every single morning might be like for the months (or rather, years) to come.

"U-Um, good morning, Giotto-san."Tsuna shuffled his feet nervously, tugging repeatedly at the hem of his oversized tee-shirt, which doubled as his pajamas, as he felt the stare intensify into a dark glower. He didn't have to look up to note that the blond furrowed his brows, resulting in an annoyed expression appeared on Giotto's face. He could practically _feel_ it.

Giotto tapped his foot against the floor impatiently and crossed his arms over his chest. "No honorifics."

A ribbon of red painted itself across Tsuna's cheeks and the brunet found himself taking a small step backwards, opening his mouth to inform Giotto, about the importance of courtesy and the correct use of first names in Japan.

They were certainly not intimate enough and to start calling each other by their first names after their very first time speaking last night. Even if it was a known fact that Giotto was from Italy and probably did not know of such formalities – though in Giotto's case, it would be more because he wasn't interested enough to care.

It was too embarrassing for Tsuna to do so because the brunet was extremely sure that he lik- _loves_ Giotto. But heck, they were supposed to be family, and family members do call each other by their first names, regardless of whether they were on good terms or not.

"You blush a lot." Giotto tilted his head slightly to the side to emphasize his point when the pink decorating Tsuna's face deepened and turned into a deep red. Unknowingly, Tsuna opened his mouth to start another round of his shrill cries once again. "And you scream a lot too."

It sounded more like an observation – rather than a simple question and Tsuna found himself hesitating if he should answer it or not. What if it was just a joke set forth to ridicule him? Would he appear more of an idiot than he was if he took the bait?

Giotto rolled his eyes at the nervousness and uncertainty reflected in the depths of the chocolate brown orbs and casually brushed a bang out of his face. "It's not a bad thing."

Tsuna blinked twice, a small smile lifting the corners of his lips a little while he let out a breath that he had no idea he was holding. "T-Thank you, I-"

"But it's not a compliment either," Giotto interrupted curtly, smirking at the confused and shocked expression the brunet had on.

He definitely enjoyed seeing the bright shade of red spreading across Tsuna's cheeks and down his neck like wildfire. He noted how the evidence of Tsuna's embarrassment would linger at the ends of his ears. "Anyway, I just wanted to inform you that your mother left a note saying that she wouldn't be preparing breakfast today. She's out with my dad to take their wedding photographs and I don't think that they would be home anytime soon."

Noticing the sudden change in topic, Tsuna heaved a sigh of relief mentally and quickly joined into the conversation, contributing what he felt to be his role in this small change of words. "B-But today is a Saturday, right? Would the wedding agency be open?"

Tsuna had always thought that wedding photographs supposed to be taken way before the actual wedding date. At least that was how it was like in those dramas that his mother loved to watch in between doing housework.

Giotto stuffed his hands into his pockets, pushing past Tsuna so he could make his way down the staircase towards the first floor. "And how the hell should I know? Either they made an appointment beforehand or the agency has a lot of free time on its hands. All of these are none of my business anyway."

"But isn't Iemitsu your father? Shouldn't put some thought into this? Shouldn't you feel happy that he finally found a partner that he wants to spend the rest of his life with?" This was a lame response, even by Tsuna's standards, so much so that it might be considered talking back, but somehow Tsuna knew that he successfully put across what he felt.

The brunet was genuinely happy that his mother had managed to find someone that she wanted to treasure and cherish, and he felt that if Giotto loved his parent half as much as he did, the blond should be feeling the same way too.

"Weddings are just another silly ceremony two people put together to pledge of their undying love for each other. And then they break up a few months later because they _can't get along_," Giotto scoffed, not bothering to glance backwards. "But you don't have to continue to preach just because you don't agree with my views. Because seriously, I don't care."

Wanting to change the blond's thoughts on this issue and find out the reason why Giotto just seemed to be so apathetic to issues which even concerned himself, Tsuna called for Giotto to wait and attempted to run down the steps two at a time. However, he missed his footing and plunged down to the ground, smacking his head against the hard wood of the ground. Tears immediately prickled the back of his eyes.

Cussing a little under his breath, Giotto stalked towards Tsuna, pulling the wincing brunet to his feet in one rough motion and handed Tsuna a tissue to wipe at his major nosebleed before his eyes turned towards the wall clock to note the time, his lips pressed into a firm line showing great displeasure.

"Are you like, ow, rushing for time?"

Giotto took another glance at the time that was shown on the clock – which was ten minutes after eight in the morning – and nodded impatiently. "Yeah, I have a date at nine sharp in the neighboring town and it takes almost an hour to travel over. I don't want to keep her waiting."

Tsuna cringed – partly from the pain and partly from the news – and tried his best to smile.

It didn't take a genius to guess that Giotto was referring to his girlfriend, and as impossible as it sounds like for someone with such a nonchalant and aloof character to have a girlfriend, Tsuna couldn't ignore the fact that to many of those schoolgirls (he meant those silly sickeningly brainless _fan_girls like who could be found in every corner of his school), the blond was considered to be a big catch - handsome, hot, cool, kind, rich, gentlemanly, et cetera.

And so he had expected that Giotto would have a freaking girlfriend. Or two. Maybe even three. This was normal, no big deal.

It wasn't like he minded. Oh no, not especially.

Taking his silence as acceptance, Giotto immediately pivoted around on his heel and left for the meeting place he arranged with his girlfriend, slamming the front door of the house harshly behind him. Tsuna shuddered at the loudness of the noise echoing around his apartment and grabbed another tissue to stuff up his bleeding nose.

Great, now he was all alone in his home once again. His mother was out with Iemitsu and Giotto couldn't even bother to stay at home with him. Ignoring the pounding headache at the back of his head and the relentless throbbing of his nose, Tsuna stumbled over to the phone and grabbed the receiver, dialing a series of numbers speedily.

After all, this was the only number he could remember and it belonged to the only person who would pick up his calls.

The brunet twirled the telephone cord around his fingers anxiously, making them tangle into a huge mess, as he heard the dial tone for more than five times. Suddenly, the noise stopped mid-ring and a nervous and soft voice sounded from the other end of the line.

"Tsuna?"

"Enma! Sorry that I didn't text you last night when I reached home. There was a lot happening, I'll tell you all about it sometime soon. But first of all, are you alright? What took you so long to answer the phone? Are the wounds yesterday still... you know..." Tsuna drummed his fingers against the top of the beige counter and calmed down a little from hearing the rhythm, relieved that the redhead was still healthy enough to speak to him.

Enma was his best friend, and the two of them came to an understanding with each other fairly easily since they had been classmates and friends for eleven years (they met in preschool when they were five), and the fact that both of them were bullied on an almost-daily basis. The bullies had even referred to their relationship as a mere licking of the each others' wounds.

"It's okay, and I'm fine. I was just eating breakfast. More importantly, Tsuna, you sound weird."

An awkward smile spread across the brunet's face. He pulled the piece of tissue out of his nostrils and caught a glance of his reflection in the mirror. His nose looked red and slightly swollen. Grumbling a little, Tsuna raided another piece of tissue from the box and wiped at the flowing blood. "Yeah. I fell face-first down the stairs and smashed my nose against the floor. There's a nosebleed, a seriously bad one."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm totally fine. Really!" Tsuna added quickly to reassure Enma, instinctively running a hand through his dark brown locks. He just _knew_ that the redhead was worried and was holding the phone tightly between both of his hands. Because both of them were just that close. "Enma? Uh, do you remember Giotto? Vongola Giotto?"

The other end of the line fell silent and Tsuna realized that it was because Enma forgot about everything he told him about the blond.

Even though Giotto was considered one of the few popular guys in their school, especially with his hair color that no one else had (it was against the rules to dye or bleach your hair), but Enma was not a girl, especially one who would start hyperventilating when Giotto strode past. Tsuna was certain that Enma had more serious issues to worry about.

Like how was he going to deal with the school bullies and hide his wounds from his five other siblings. The first and the last time Enma let it slip about how much he was treated in school, he had immediately found the bullies tied up tightly to the school gate the very next day.

Aoba had done it with good intentions, which was to help Enma by punishing those damn assholes who dared to hurt his darling little brother.

But then the brainless plan he spent a hell lot of time thinking up, backfired when the stupid bullies rattled about this to a teacher and the redhead was summoned to the principal's office where the head of the disciplinary committee suspended him from school for a whole week because he started a fight on school grounds.

"He's in the same school as us. Giotto is that guy that I told you about before. The person I like."

"What about him?"

Tsuna heaved a sigh of relief inwardly. Enma was the only person that he ever told about his feelings and he didn't know who else he could ask for advice from if Enma refused to help him or made fun of his sexual orientation. But Enma wasn't someone like that – Tsuna knew at least that much.

"He's living in the same house as me now. Apparently my mom met his dad and they are getting married tonight. I'm still finding it a little difficult to accept that fact, and my mom just told me about it yesterday. So meaning, Giotto will become something like my brother, uh, tomorrow. And he has a girlfriend. I think she's probably a really cute girl."

"Oh."

Tsuna sighed inwardly at Enma's lack of a proper response. He knew of his friend's reluctance to speak – in fact he had always been the one to contribute the most to their conversations, whereas Enma had constantly participated only by giving vague responses to his questions.

And Tsuna didn't mind it much, because this was Enma's personality. And he enjoyed the silence that seemed to hang around the teenager.

"Say, Enma, do you mind if I go over to your place right now?"

The sound of Enma putting down his cell phone on the table could be heard and Tsuna understood immediately that Enma was off to ask his siblings for permission.

The brunet leaned forward, putting his chin on the counter while he checked the condition of his self-inflicted injury. His nose wasn't throbbing now, but was getting a little itchy and numb. Tsuna looked wistfully at the kitchen sink and hoped that he could go and wash off the drying blood.

Unfortunately the only phone in the house was the one he was using, whereby the wire could not reach _that_ far and unlike Enma or other teenagers his age, Tsuna did not have a cell phone.

When the teenager tried dropping hints about the gift that he wanted for his birthday last year, his mother had solemnly pointed out to him about a newspaper article showing that parents and children with mobile phones normally send text messages to each other instead of speaking normally even though both of them were living in the same house.

Nana said that phones were a big no-no and refused to buy get one of those devices for him, even though it was on a promotion. His mother stood firm against the idea and it wasn't like Tsuna could defy her. He was aiming to be the typical kind of model child who always listened to the adults.

"Sorry, Tsuna, you can't come over. Adelheid is in the house. She is doing a biology project together with Julie."

Tsuna instinctively made a face upon hearing that woman's name. It wasn't like he hated her, but he could still remember vividly that the last time he went over to find Enma, Adelheid had been the one to open the door, and for the whole of next week, Tsuna had found himself trembling every time someone looked in his direction because that was exactly how unnerving and horrifying the lady's death glare was.

Not that Hibari-san's was any better. Tsuna's mood sunk at the thought. At least Adelheid had long since graduated and he didn't have to face two strict disciplinary heads barking at him left and right.

"How about tomorrow?" Tsuna asked tentatively. He wondered if Enma was uncomfortable with the idea, but there was no way that he would be able to read his friend's expression over the phone. That was the only thing Tsuna didn't like about modern technology.

"I think so. Most of my family members would be out and I was about to invite you over."

A grin spread across Tsuna's features at the thought of being still able to spend some time with his best friend despite it being a weekend, and the brunet scratched at his cheek gently. "Invitation accepted!"

Tsuna grabbed a pencil lying about nearby and swiftly scribbled his plans on the calender. Even though it was only one day later that he would be able to finally see his friend over this long two day weekend, Tsuna slouched forward and leaned against the counter tiredly. He was feeling bored that he would have nothing much to do for the rest of the day. Really, he wanted to see his friend now and speak to Enma face to face. He didn't want to wait.

"If you don't mind, Aoba said that it's okay if I go over to your house instead, Tsuna."

A grin spread across Tsuna's face at the thought of being able to still spend some time with his best friend despite it being a weekend, and the brunet scratched at his cheek gently. "Of course! You can even stay to attend the whole of my mom's wedding! And then we can-"

A soft chuckle could be heard from the other end of the line that lasted for a short five seconds, and after Tsuna got over the fact that Enma just _laughed_, a smile reappeared on the brunet's face. Suddenly, Enma stopped laughing halfway and his tone turned a little anxious when a loud shout blasted, the source being – no doubt, Aoba.

"Sorry Tsuna. I have to go now. I'll reach your house in ten."

Before Tsuna could answer, Enma hung up and the monotonous dial tone returned to the other end of the line. Sighing, the brunet place the receiver back down at its rightful spot and moved over to the kitchen sink where he was finally able to wash off the blood.

Tsuna stared down at the diluted reddish brown flowing down into the drain and cringed when he felt the incessant stinging that water against an open wound brought.

Wiping at his face with one of the towels always stored under the sink tenderly, Tsuna then moved over to kitchen area and ransacked it for a packet of cereal.

His stomach rumbled blissfully and Tsuna frowned. His mother didn't seem to have either the thought to stock up on food before going off on her honeymoon, or the mind to leave behind some cash so he and Giotto could _scrape_ _by_ for the next three months (it was against the school regulations to work part-time, courtesy of Hibari-san).

Tsuna dumped the used towel on the top of the large pile of dirty laundry and plopped down onto the seat of the small black leather couch while holding on to a glass of milk and his bowl of cereal.

For the third time in his life (out of the seven times he tried to eat on the couch) he didn't manage to spill anything.

Okay, maybe he almost did. But the essence of the problem was that not even one single thing managed to fall out, right? Gingerly, Tsuna placed the cup of liquid on the coffee table and switched on the television.

Nothing good was on show at the moment, but nevertheless, Tsuna continued watching it.

Because ten minutes seemed a pretty long time to wait – whenever Enma was involved.

xXxXx

Thirty minutes later, Tsuna was on the phone again. He couldn't help being worried for Enma, who did not turn up yet, and called his family again. Thankfully, the one who picked up the call wasn't Adelheid who scared the hell outta him, or Julie who loved to waste his time by talking in roundabout methods, or Aoba who shouted a whole lot more than he was supposed to.

"Kaoru. Is Enma still at home?"

Tsuna never really knew the exact reason why, but he could almost pin-point which of Enma's family members he was speaking to. It shouldn't be much surprise since he had known all of them for more than a decade – in fact it would be weird if he was not able to – and so, using this theory, it was a given that he wasn't able to recognize Giotto's voice this morning.

"No, he left right after you last called him. Did something happen to him?"

Tsuna cursed himself mentally for dropping hints that could lead to Enma's family finding out that their youngest sibling could have possibly been caught in some form of trouble and did not turned up at his house yet. The last thing his friend needed was to be summoned to the Principal's office just because he _started_ another fight.

"No, of course not. Anyway, don't you have to go for your morning baseball practice already, Kaoru?"

"Yes. If you don't mind, I have to go now. Bye, Sawada."

Once again, the line was cut before Tsuna could bid the older man a proper goodbye. Seriously, did all of those people in Enma's family like to cut off his calls? Or was this a silly policy recently adopted by them? The 'we must all cut off Sawada Tsunayoshi's phone calls before he says everything he wants to and keep doing it till he gets pissed off' plan? Because Tsuna was seriously feeling irritated right now.

But still there was one exception who never paid attention to the 'policy', which was Julie Katou. That guy was the only one who never cut him off – because he was the one who normally hung up all phone calls that had something to do with said man. Tsuna just couldn't stand the disgusting way Julie always spoke in, those outdated flirting methods Julie always used.

Because he was a man! And two guys were not supposed to... but it wasn't like Tsuna was allowed to talk about the relationship between two men.

Berating himself for having his thoughts sidetracked once again by muttering several major put-downs to himself, Tsuna grabbed the house keys and his favorite pair of gloves (it was a birthday gift which his mother specially knitted for him and Tsuna refused to go _anywhere_ without it) and prepared to search for his friend.

Enma was his top priority right now.

Tsuna ungracefully tripped over his shoelaces when he attempted to step out of his house without tying his shoelaces first, but fortunately, he grabbed the handle of the front door in time and he managed to stabilize himself.

The only bad thing was that Tsuna found the door unlocked. Damn, he forgot that Giotto left the damn house without a key. If his mother knew about his carelessness, there was no doubt that he would be reprimanded severely.

"Tsuna."

The brunet looked up upon hearing his name and his jaw dropped straight to the ground when saw the state his best friend was in. There were dead leaves stuck in between the red locks of hair and blood dripping down from Enma's forehead and covering the left half of his head. Moreover, Enma was also sporting a couple of bruises, which included a black eye.

Quickly, Tsuna pulled his redheaded friend into the apartment and forced Enma to sit on the couch. They had a short argument about it – with Enma insisting that he might dirty the leather with his blood, and Tsuna snapping back that he did not care.

"What happened?" Tsuna demanded, his tone brusque. He was opening the top cabinet where his mother always kept all forms of medication and pulled out a roll of bandages and painkillers.

"Nothing much. I merely tried to take a shortcut over, but I met a group of bullies on the way. They didn't really do much apart from stealing my wallet. And Tsuna, no bandages."

The brunet ran a hand through his hair as he tip-toed and stuffed the bandages back into the cabinet again. In his hurry, he had forgotten the importance of keeping Enma's wounds a secret from his other family members.

Next, he pushed a glass of water and the medication into Enma's hands and waited till his friend swallowed before opening up the first aid kit and started applying the disinfectant to the numerous cuts and bruises. "That's not exactly what I would call _nothing_, Enma."

"I'm used to it already."

Standing up to his full height of 157 centimeters, Tsuna set his gloves and keys down on the coffee table and switched off the television, which was now showing the very first episode of Pokémon.

He knew that they were not supposed to get used to this sort of thing – physical bullying – but both of them had been hit so much that it seemed perfectly normal for them to be long since numb and immune to the pain already. "Wait here, I'll get some concealer."

Enma nodded silently and crossed his legs. He no longer complained about how the make-up set belonged to Nana and they shouldn't use it without permission. Or rather, he never did so after Tsuna told him that they were best friends and have long since past that not-using-the-things-your-friends-try-to-give-you stage.

It wasn't everyday that Tsuna would enter his mother's room. But even so, he knew exactly where his mother kept her make-up set and he stealthily made his way over to the drawer of the dresser where his mother placed the concealer.

He always tried not to use too much of it, afraid that his mother would notice and question him on why a boy had to use make-up, but there were times when it was inevitable. Like, now. There was no way he could allow Enma to go home while sporting that black eye. Hibari-san and Alaude-san had already insisted on expelling Enma if the boy stated another fight around town and the last thing anyone needed was for Aoba to go nuts and kick the asses of everyone who dared to come within ten inches of his kid brother.

Tsuna made a face.

"Here, I've got it."

Enma closed his right eye and stiffened when Tsuna tried to patch up the remaining wounds before applying the concealer gently over the bruise. Tsuna didn't bother to ask Enma to inform him if it hurts because he himself had gotten enough wounds to know that it was practically impossible for one of this magnitude to _not _hurt.

"There. It's done. You look unscathed now." Tsuna took a minute to grin at his work – not bothering about the fact that there was something terribly wrong if he used concealer so much that he could cover any form of injury within eight seconds flat.

"Thank you."

Tsuna smiled slightly at the sincerity in the timid voice before returning to his mother's room to put the concealer back into its rightful place. Enma waited patiently, once again, for the brunet to come downstairs again.

Tsuna had never seen the interior of his room before and Enma had never been up to Tsuna's room before because he disliked wandering around people's houses.

Okay, maybe he did, just once. When they had to wrap the ugly cut around the brunet's torso and Tsuna had rejected the idea of visiting a doctor or explaining his situation to his mother. But then again, that was the only one time Enma ever entered Tsuna's room.

"Is the wound still there?" Enma peered at the orange shirt covering Tsuna's stomach, where the wound had been. "The one which you got after the middle school's graduation ceremony."

Tsuna involuntarily made a face at the memory. He didn't quite remember what happened on that day, except that he and Enma had somehow coincidentally trepassed some gangster turf. And being the defenseless pushovers both of them were, they were instantly surrounded and beaten up.

The last thing Tsuna remembered before blacking out was that the head of the gang took out something that resembled a penknife and charging towards Enma. Against all forms of logical thinking, Tsuna jumped in front of his friend, trying to protect Enma because his poor friend already had a badly fractured hand and the brunet felt that Enma did not deserve this mistreatment.

Which resulted in _him_ being the one slashed and injured instead.

"Yep. Just a small scar though." Tsuna felt the trace of the inch and a half long scar through his tee-shirt and smiled stiffly at Enma in order to wash away the slight display of guilt reflected in the depths of the two crimson orbs.

"So what did you bring along?"

Enma picked up his bag and pulled out a worksheet as well as a thick foolscap pad. "Homework. We have an English assignment to hand up on Monday. It takes up fifty percent of out test scores."

Gasping in shock from having forgotten cleanly about said assignment, Tsuna immediately rushed up to his room and grabbed his schoolbag, pulling random worksheets out until he found the one he was looking for, and rushed back downstairs. "R-Right. Let's start!"

xXxXx

Tsuna couldn't help but fidget while standing behind his mother. Iemitsu and Nana finally returned home, with a sullen-looking blond stalking past the threshold, his brows pulled into a displeased frown.

Enma left almost immediately after that, muttering repeatedly under his breath something about a curfew at five in the evening before bolting out of the apartment with the fastest speed that would put all the members on the Namimori track team to shame. Well, this behavior was typical for Enma since the kid had always seemed to be afraid of his mother for some unknown reason, and it definitely didn't help that Giotto appeared to be glaring darkly at him.

And soon after that, the four of them were forced to squeeze into a tiny vehicle and Iemitsu drove them over to the venue of the wedding and the couple had said their vows. Unlike what Tsuna imagined, they were in a really small church and no one else was invited since the Sawada family were not exactly on good terms with any of their relatives and Iemitsu didn't stay in the country long enough to know anyone either.

Vows were exchanged rather quickly (with a whole load of blushing, batting of eyelids, hugs and kissing) and Nana quickly explained to Tsuna that they would hold a proper wedding banquet back in Italy, because that was where Iemitsu's friends and family was, and they would have more people attending as well.

Tsuna wondered skeptically what _more_ meant, when the only ones watching the wedding procedures were only him and Giotto, who apparently did not even look interested at all. Well, apart from squinting his eyes and reading a magazine while making use of the poor lighting.

Tsuna could not make up his mind if Giotto was just trying to be mean or was simply much too honest for his own good. Normally, wouldn't people pretend to look interested even if they were really bored?

"Say, Tsu-kun, do you think I look pretty?" Nana asked, her voice quaking slightly while she ran a hand through the ends of her short dark brown hair to straighten out the artificial curls. "The cab is going to take me and Papa straight to the airport immediately after this, and when I alight, I'm going to meet his parents. I'm feeling so nervous, you know. I-Is this dress decent enough?"

Tsuna didn't understand what the entire fuss was about, but he nodded anyway.

"Give Mama a hug?"

Tsuna smiled and wrapped his hands gently around his mother carefully, cautious not to rumple any part of the light pink dress, in attempt to comfort Nana and calm her nerves.

"Nana! It's time to go!" Iemitsu called when the two taxis he hailed screeched to an abrupt stop in front of them. Giotto stepped forward, and helped with the loading of their luggage into the back trunk while Iemitsu opened the door of the vehicle and waited patiently until Nana got in.

As if in response, Tsuna waved as energetically as he could until the car Nana and Iemitsu was in drove out of view before getting into the back seat of the second cab together with Giotto. The blond occupied the right half of the seat and leaned forward to tell the driver the address of their home.

On the other hand, Tsuna pressed the top of his head against the cool glass window and stared out at the dark remote surroundings and wondered why on earth would his mother choose to have a wedding in such an area before realizing that it would most likely be due to the situation of their finances. Of all the sacrifices his mother had to make...

"Iemitsu gave me a bankbook. He said that they will send money over every month, on the first. It's enough to survive, if we don't buy unnecessary stuff."

Tsuna nodded slightly at the warning tone in the soft tenor. It wasn't like he was a spendthrift and he actually had his own savings, even if his piggy bank wasn't filled with so much money that he would bother bragging about it. Tsuna glanced at the bold green letters shown on the dashboard. 11:30 pm.

No wonder he was getting a little drowsy and tired. The brunet rubbed at his eyes and tried to stifle a yawn.

"There." Giotto pulled his mobile phone out from his back pocket and held it out to Tsuna, his tone peppered with both amusement and sarcasm. "I heard from your mother that you have to call one of your friends before you go to sleep. Everyday, without fail."

Tsuna held the device limply in his hands and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat as a slight shade of pink splattered across his face from what he supposed was humiliation and embarrassment. The last thing he wanted people to think was that he was dependent on Enma. Sure, the two of them always stuck with each other (ever since the very first day they met) but they just had what others know as a platonic relationship. A little more intimate, but still platonic all the same. There was nothing more, and nothing less either.

Giotto arched an eyebrow in confusion. "What, are you doing?"

The pink flush on Tsuna cheeks melted into a darker shade of red as the bashful teenager quickly looked down to avoid seeing the amusement lighting up in those sunset-colored eyes. "I-I don't know how to use it."

Giotto snorted and grabbed the mobile from the brunet's hands easily, and pressed a series of numbers to unlock the password-free phone lock. "There. Just type in the number and press the button on the left to make the call."

With trembling hands, Tsuna accepted the mobile phone once again, and clumsily typed in the only number that he ever memorized in the sixteen years of his life, up till today.

"Who, what, where, why, which and how?"

"Shitt P.!" Tsuna could have sworn that he almost cried tears of joy when he heard the familiar phrase echoing over the phone, right into his ear. He could just imagine the lady twirling around elegantly while saying that. It was something like her new catchphrase, which she picked up several days ago from a television program.

He was grateful that Shitt P. bothered to pick up the phone. In fact, Tsuna would have loved to speak to her more, if not for the fact that Giotto was practically glaring daggers into the back of his head – and it was possible that the blond was thinking that this entire phone call was just a waste of his time and money. "Is Enma still awake?"

"Oops, bad luck! He just went to sleep!"

"Oh." Tsuna wiped the sweat from his palms onto his jeans and inhaled deeply. He hadn't expected that Enma would go to sleep this early because the redhead always seemed to be awake no matter what time Tsuna called him.

However today had indeed been a long day and even Tsuna himself was feeling tired. His eyelids were feeling heavier and heavier with every passing minute and then there were those new injuries that Enma received today.

"Howdy? Are you still listening to me?"

Tsuna blinked and wiped at the corners of his eyes as he yawned. "Yeah?"

"I said, is this your new number? Did your mother suddenly became supportive of the ideas we teenagers have and bought you a mobile phone? And you are using it now to call over?"

E-Er... "No. This isn't my number. It's G-" Tsuna slapped a hand over his mouth just in time to keep himself from blabbing the blond's name out. It was one thing to tell Enma about it, but completely another thing to tell Shitt P. Besides, Giotto was seated right beside him and Tsuna couldn't bring himself to say the man's name without a perfectly sound reason.

Anyway, did the blond even want people to know about how their families were connected now? Or would he prefer to not let their classmates and friends know about this?

"G? Are you with him right now? Oh, put him on the phone! I wanna talk to him!"

Tsuna cringed and moved the phone further away in order to nurse the ringing in his eardrums. Shitt P. had a tendency to scream and squeal loudly recently, when anything in their conversation involved G. "No. I'm not with G, but-"

"Is it Gokudera then?" Tsuna could almost hear the pout when she said the words. Shitt P. used to be on good terms with Gokudera, but the two of them have recently got into quite a nasty large-scale argument and have been ignoring each other for weeks. During this time, Shitt P. had also decided to shift her attention over to Gokudera's cousin, otherwise known as G. "Hmph. I don't want to talk to him. Bye, Tsuna."

Without waiting for the brunet to say his goodbye, she cut off the call and left Tsuna listening to the cold dial tone. Trying the best to ignore how he was cut off by three different people three times in one single day, Tsuna noted that spent a total of fourteen minutes and twenty seconds on the phone before returning the cell phone to Giotto.

"That was fast."

Tsuna shook his head to show that Giotto's inference was incorrect. "M-My friend wasn't awake. His sister was the one who spoke to me."

Giotto smirked and turned his torso at an angle so it seemed as if he wanted to continue talking to Tsuna – which could not be the case because the brunet knew that he wasn't the most engaging speaker on Earth. "I'll add on to what I said in the morning. You stammer a lot too."

"That's because I..."

"You don't smile much, not that I'm actually qualified to speak about this aspect. You always seem nervous, especially when talking to strangers. And you are afraid of bugs," Giotto continued smoothly as if Tsuna had never interrupted him, with a wry smile on his face. "Acarophobia."

Tsuna shivered when he remembered the insect that got a _little too close_ for his liking when they were at the church just now. Tsuna had tried his best to keep his screams in so he wouldn't interrupt the sacred ceremony that his mother was participating in.

"Astraphobia."

Tsuna cringed as the memory of the time he let out an extremely _manly_ scream when he saw lightning flash before his eyes came flooding back into his mind. He could still remember how the entire class laughed at him and joked about his phobia for three whole days, so much so that the word Giotto just used became the top of his most-hated-word list. And it didn't help that the blond just helped him to recall that.

"Then what phobias do _you _have?" Tsuna challenged, his head getting a little woozy from lack of sleep because the brunet would never ever think of being in a conversation with Giotto – let alone one about his phobias – if that wasn't the case. Why were they even talking about this in the first place?

Giotto ran a hand through his golden strands of hair as the cab pulled into the driveway. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a couple of bills and handed them to the driver before proceeding over to the other side of the vehicle to help Tsuna get down.

Grabbing his mother's keys which were hidden under the doormat, Tsuna unlocked the front door of the house and stepped in, quickly flipping on all the lights before he started spotting weird shapes in the darkness, since the brunet believed that tiredness and late nights out do weird things to a person's head. Once Giotto let go of his arm, Tsuna staggered over to the stairs, his eyes blurring slightly and he hung on to the banister as tightly as he could – just in case he missed a step.

"Tsunayoshi."

The brunet turned at the sound of his name, and hazy brown met orange. Tsuna then tilted his head slightly to the right in a silent gesture to ask Giotto to continue speaking.

"The phobia that I have is called Philophobia."

xXxXx

**Author's notes: **OTL this is the longest length of words for this chapter I could churn up for this chapter. I initially wanted to write a grand total of 10,000 words but it ended up being 8000 plus. Oh well, I feel that it's long enough already. Right? At least it's more than twice of last chapter's length! Besides I took out the details of the wedding because I felt that it would seriously be too long, and I'll scare away other new reviewers.

To all those who reviewed for the first chapter, thank you very much for the reviews and please review again?

_Philophobia – fear of love/falling in love_


	3. of breakfast and cakes

**Aki Sou **No, I thank YOU for taking the time to review ;D I'll be sure to update it as soon as possible! **mangaromance **How should I put it? Giotto is a little arrogant and antisocial, but I did mention before that he doesn't like façades and he isn't the type to lie anyway. Giotto can be open towards others too. **Rinatsu** Nice doubt you have there. Well, I never mentioned whether Giotto's phobia is actually true or false, did I? Let your imagination run wild. **Fai Senri **Haha, I'm glad you like long chapters too. How can I possibly allow Giotto to be so overly perfect? All humans have flaws, that might just be one of his weaknesses. **Dark Gothic Lolita** The explanation is at the end of the second chapter, the very last line. Did you miss it? 0.0 **XxstrawberrybloomxX**I've changed my writing style slightly. If you come across this story again, please mention it if you think it's still difficult to understand. It's part of improving ^^ **fan girl 666 **I'm overjoyed. Literally. Thanks for the compliment. **Piratelizard101 **Finding phobias that suit Tsuna was simple enough, but definitely not for Giotto. Imagine all the words I have to look through in the phobia list before I reach the Ps. Not fun. **PrimoLover **Hey I love Primo too! Thanks for the review XD **GhoulTears **Thanks for the review, as usual. Hearts.

**of breakfast and cakes**  
>家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN! © 天野明; Beta-ed by <span>AlixNight<span>

There was an acrid tang of something burning and Tsuna flinched at the smell, immediately clambering across the couch to dart into the kitchen, where he could see a thick shock of unkempt blond hair over the counter. Giotto had offered to prepare breakfast for the both of them and started hacking away at the chopping board while muttering unceremoniously about this being his duty because he was one effing year older.

The brunet, on the other hand, was forced to wait in the living room while watching cartoons. But seriously, the pungent burnt smell and _smoke _was the freaking last straw.

Tsuna appeared behind Giotto, peeking around his torso and took in two deep breaths before asking lamely. "What is that?"

Giotto frowned down at the unidentifiable black substance in the frying pan, his grimace evolving into a glower as he prodded the sizzling lump with a pair of chopsticks. "Omelets."

"A-And that is?" Tsuna tried to change the subject by gesturing towards the pile of green goo – which vaguely resembled cabbage – fully submerged in a saucepan filled with what seemed to be greatly diluted oil.

"Stir-fry cabbage."

HIIEEE? That's... WHAT? Tsuna flailed around miserably while trying desperately to conjure an appropriate response that wouldn't make it seem as if he was making fun of Giotto. But the problem was that there weren't a lot of words that Tsuna could think of using at this instant, for this situation.

Dammit, he knew he should have memorized the entire dictionary when his teacher told him to do so.

"Y-You... can't... cook, right?"

Red sprinkled across Giotto's cheeks and rapidly deepened in shade. Feeling utterly humiliated at having one of his weaknesses known, the bashful blond teenager stared down at the dish he spent the last half an hour cooking (and failed at) for one final time before scooping up the entire mass and dumped it into the bin without so much as a second thought.

"No! I didn't mean that you have to throw away your food just because it looks extremely unnatural and disgusting and repulsive and inedible, it's just that–"

Honey gold colored eyes flashed in a mixture of fury and embarrassment, and Tsuna found himself steadily backing away, arms raised in defense, as he squeaked pathetically for his life to be spared.

Giotto's brows knitted together to form a menacing scowl directed straight at Tsuna. The brunet winced slightly and made sure to process his response clearly first before speaking once again. He did not want to let Giotto misunderstand the meanings of his words once again.

"I-If you don't mind, I can cook today's breakfast instead." Although Tsuna's voice was a tad bit too soft and timid sounding, he meant everything he just said.

He was famished and whatever Giotto tried to prepare did not appear to be the slightest bit edible. Sure, Tsuna knew that he could always let the blond try his luck out once more but he seriously doubted it would make a large difference.

And, it would be _way_ faster if he was the one cooking instead. Really.

"Feel free." A delicate eyebrow arched upwards and a skeptical smirk curved Giotto's lips as he proceeded to scrap off all the remaining evidence of his failed products and dumped the pots and the pans he used into the sink, before taking a step backwards to allow Tsuna to have enough space to cross over to the stove.

Indignant, the brunet stalked over (or at least, Tsuna hoped that it didn't look like a silly drunken swaying dance to Giotto's eyes) and started removing pieces of egg shells from the bowl before starting to beat the egg mixture with apparent skill.

Which was an obvious thing for him to have, Tsuna mused.

Because he was the only child of Sawada Nana – who was once a famous chef scouted by many – plus, home economics (which consisted of cooking and sewing lessons) was one of the few classes that Tsuna really enjoyed and excelled in. Summarizing everything up, it simply meant that Tsuna can, could, would and will cook.

Grumbling a little under his breath, the blond moved over to the sink to wash the dishes. He didn't especially want to clean them but that particular mess was all his fault. Besides, Tsuna needed the pot and pan, and he was not irresponsible as to _not_ clean up. Much as he hated using this point, Giotto was the older one.

"I'll do it instead!" Tsuna gasped, charging over to try to wrestle the bottle of washing detergent out from Giotto's hands. The blond certainly didn't look competent at doing any form of housework, and putting his mother's favorite culinary set in Giotto's hands was definitely not the best idea. Even Tsuna could tell that much.

"I _can_ wash the dishes," Giotto retorted, giving special emphasis to the choice of words and shot down all of Tsuna's rebukes with that one simple sentence. "At least."

Giving up hastily, the brunet leaped up onto the counter rather smoothly - if you didn't include the two times he knocked his hip into the hard wood before finally managing to reach the top of it - and sat there, waiting impatiently for Giotto to complete his job.

He couldn't possibly be cooking while waiting for Giotto to finish cleaning and drying the plates. Whatever he would be preparing would probably be burnt by then.

"Hey, Tsunayoshi. Stop spacing out and pick up the damn phone."

The brunet stopped twiddling his thumbs when he heard the smooth tenor and stretched over the end of the long beige counter to lift the receiver up to his ear. The calm tinkling music in the background came to an abrupt stop and Nana's voice sounded over from the other end of the line.

"Tsu-kun? The is Mama! Papa and I have finally reached Italy and we are on our way to Papa's house right now. I've also met with his parents earlier and they're so kind. I'm sure that Tsu-kun will love this place too, so maybe you can visit us during the summer holidays. How does that sound?"

Bad.

Tsuna blanched and clutched at the receiver in his hands tighter.

"I-I have summer holiday remedial classes to attend, Mom." There was never one holiday that Tsuna ever managed to escape from those torturous mental drilling lessons – although none of them seemed to help him in any way either – Tsuna still managed to somehow fail all his written papers and practical examinations with _flying colors._

He couldn't even remember when was the last time he actually managed to pass an examination.

Tsuna shook his head to clear it of his inner voice. He did not need to be sidetracked right now. What the brunet knew he had to do, was to recall what his mother just said, and formulate a suitable response to the issue.

"So, Tsu-kun? What do you think about coming over here after you complete your courses and subject remedial lessons? I'm sure there would be a few days left! Grandma and Grandpa would be thrilled to meet you!"

Not him though. Tsuna shuddered involuntarily at the thought of himself going overseas to such a faraway land? It was impossible.

First and foremost, he couldn't speak Italian to save his life – and didn't know anyone who could. Except for Giotto, who would definitely be reluctant to follow him around the whole day just because he needed a translator to help him say simple things like 'hello', 'please' and 'thank you'.

Provided that Giotto was in a good enough mood that day to not tweak the meaning of his words and turn them into sentences that would get him chased down ten streets and slapped ten times. Tsuna shuddered once more.

Next, he was afraid of heights. And the name of that particular fear was... Nope, he couldn't recall it. He didn't necessarily want to, for that matter.

Thirdly, he had an extreme case of motion sickness that practically rendered him useless on anything. Except for cars - or maybe buses, if they kept a little under 60km/h. Plus, asking Giotto to take care of him while he _elegantly _threw up into plastic bag after plastic bag wouldn't be a pretty sight. Provided the blond would even accept the offer to sit beside him when that happened.

"Tsu-kun? So, what's your answer? Will you be coming over during the holidays?"

"The lessons are stretched out over the entire month of holidays, Mom. And my mathematics teacher, Reborn-sensei said that he would have to meet me for personal lessons after that because of... you know, my math grades last term. Remember? I got an... F grade, and Reborn-sensei said that I was the only person in the whole universe and the history of Mathematics, to achieve 12 out of a hundred points."

At the sound of the familiar name of his mathematics and co-homeroom teacher, Giotto perked up, turning to smirk widely at Tsuna, as if mocking him for his poor grades. It wasn't necessarily his fault, because as far as Tsuna was concerned, his incapability in math was due to a substance in his body – deoxyribonucleic acid – otherwise known as DNA.

The evidence? His mother needed three seconds to calculate the answer of eight plus three.

Awesome, at least he was better than his Mom. Even though that didn't really mean anything much to his school teachers and fellow classmates – because his results were still as _fabulous_ as ever.

"Oh I see. That's really sad to hear." Tsuna refused to point out that his mother sounded anything _but _melancholic_._ "How about Gio-kun? Doesn't he need to return home? I heard from his grandmother that it has been at least five months since he last went home."

Tsuna grimaced, raising his head to look up at the blond who gave a curt shake of his head and mouthed a silent "No".

"Uh, he said that he is part of a special course during the holidays. You know, the one with the training camp that I told you of before. So he will be away for a few days – I mean weeks. Like, maybe three weeks. Then there's only one week of summer holidays left and Giotto said he needs to make full use of that time to catch up with the schoolwork, therefore he doesn't really have the time. Also, he said thanks for the offer and sorry."

Okay, would Giotto really apologize? Tsuna doubted so.

Great, he just effed this lie up, and now everything would be revealed. Next, he would have to apologize to Giotto because he couldn't even tell a simple lie, except then he would have to... Oh god, his tendency to shut everything else out and just babble to himself, was kicking in again. Not good.

"Yes, Mom? You were saying?"

Perfect save. And now came the downfall. "I was just saying that Gio-kun is such a nice kid. I hope the two of you will get along perfectly! I'll take over as soon as I come home so remember to take good care of the house and yourself until then."

Tsuna's lips tightened into a tight grimace. He could never understand why his mother was so gullible – enough to buy a lie told by _him_, and that was saying a lot since everyone always managed to see through the brunet's half-ass lies. Not that he sucked at lying, he just didn't like to lie much. "Yes Mom, I kn-"

"Oh! Papa is calling me! I have to go now. I'll call you back as soon as I can alright? Bye, Tsu-kun!"

Tsuna slumped against the beige counter with a dejected expression on his face when he heard the monotonous dial tone on the other end of the line. God, he could almost hear the 'plonk' when his importance level in his mother's heart dropped by another level, his old position now stolen by Nana's hubby – Vongola Iemitsu.

"Love you too, Mom."

Once the brunet hung up the phone, he spotted Giotto drying the last of the plates and placing them back into their rightful places in the cabinet before taking a small step back to admire his work. "I'm done."

Tsuna leaped down from the counter and made his way over to the sink. There wasn't a need to inspect those sparking clean plates – they were practically winking brightly at him. He never could have guessed that someone who couldn't cook, could clean. The brunet had always thought that the gift of cooking and cleaning came together.

"Um, you could have always used the dishwasher, you know. It's just kept in the drawer at the far end because it's rather bulky and Mom only takes it out when she wants to use it."

If Giotto was even the slightest bit shocked, he masked it really well. "I believe in using my own two hands and not some weird piece of technology."

Yeah right, the voice in Tsuna's head mocked sarcastically. As if it wasn't obvious that the reason Giotto would have initially decided to wash the dishes manually instead was because he didn't know of the existence of the dishwasher in the first place.

"Anyway, what time are you leaving today?"

Tsuna blinked twice at the simple little question, tilting his head to the side and eyed the blond warily. "How'd you know that I'm going out today?"

Giotto then reached a hand out, extending his index finger to gesture towards the calender where the words _Going out to Enma's _could be easily seen written under the schedule for today.

Tsuna smacked his forehead with his palm mentally, wondering how it was possible for him to forget that he wrote something that obvious after his phone call with the redhead the previous day, and feared that Giotto might have been listening to his phone call with Enma when the former had already left the house.

Recently, Tsuna felt that he had been getting more than a little paranoid. How weird.

"Just make sure that you will be home before the curfew at six. That's the time that you mother said she will be calling over and I don't really want to pick up the phone because I don't have anything to say to her, but I think that she will want to speak to you."

"Okay."

Tsuna was planning to leave straight for Enma's after he finish eating his breakfast, since Julie decided to treat his family into home deliveries by McDonald's – of which Tsuna was also included in the grand plan too. There wasn't really much for him to do at Enma's except to spend some good time hanging out with his best friend.

Plus his house was just two blocks away from Enma's and he would be able to get home in five minutes flat.

The curfew was the exact same time that his mother set before she left on her honeymoon trip, and it seemed reasonable enough. Well, at least right now Tsuna understood that Giotto would be the one calling the shots in their family for the next few months since he is the older one.

"What time are you leaving?"

"Right after breakfast." Tsuna went over to the fridge to take out ingredients to add to the egg mixture before pouring it into the frying pan and turned the gas on, watching as the flames licked the sides of the pan.

Giotto nodded his head slightly and retreated to the living room to watch the morning news instead. The brunet felt a small pout pulling at the corners of his lips. Of course the happenings around the world would always be more interesting than chatting with him. What had he been expecting?

Tsuna waited until the bottom side of the omelet turned golden brown before flipping it over, and repeated the process until the omelet was cooked perfectly. As quick as his reflexes were when it came to cooking, Tsuna managed to shut off the gas supply and the fire, saving the egg from the brink of becoming burnt.

Trying his best not to destroy his masterpiece, Tsuna scooped the omelet up and placed it onto a sparkling clean plate and grabbed a knife and fork along as well.

"Giotto, this is your share of breakfast."

The blond looked up from the weather report to stare at the fidgeting kid, while his right hand searching on the table for the remote control in order to switch off the TV. "What about yours? Or are you going to tell me that you have a habit of not eating breakfast?"

Shuffling his feet nervously, Tsuna set the porcelain plate down onto the dining table. "Um, I'll just eat cereal. There's still half a box left and it... tastes better for breakfast after all."

"Do you really think so?"

"Y-Yeah."

Giotto scoffed and stalked past Tsuna to pull open the refrigerator door to reveal several empty compartments. "There are no eggs left," Giotto corrected the brunet curtly and grabbed a dry plate from beside the sink. "You don't have to lie. Lies are supposed to make people feel better, but I don't feel relieved because of what you just said."

Tsuna opened his mouth to speak something equally logical and witty in reply, but the blond cut him off by snatching the cutlery out of Tsuna's hands. Using them, the blond swiftly cut the omelet into two almost equal parts, transferring a half onto the dish he just got from the kitchen, and shoved it in front of Tsuna.

"And you don't have to keep treating me like a guest all the time. The way you always make sure to pay more attention to everything you say or do when you are around me raises much unneeded suspicion. And to be frank, it's annoying."

The smile which Tsuna had on his face, froze in place. "I'm sorry."

"And don't apologize to me as well. You've done nothing wrong, besides this is your home. Just sit down and eat." Giotto pulled out a chair and gestured towards it, signaling for the brunet to sit. "Anyway, pass me your keys later. I'll duplicate them on the way to my job. Then I'll get them back before the day ends."

Job? The fork almost slipped from Tsuna's hands. "What do you mean by that?"

Giotto arched an eyebrow. He thought that the explanation was pretty simple and could be inferred all on its own. "The son of the company is an acquaintance of mine so I'll just ask him to help me out first so we'll both have our own set of keys and I don't have to wait for you after school tomorrow, vice versa."

"No! I mean the working part. Isn't working part time against the school rules? Hiba- The Head of the Disciplinary Committee will punish the people who break the school rules harshly! Like, through detentions, cleaning the gym all alone, or he will just beat you up with his tonfas!"

"You sound like you have been through his various treatments, Tsunayoshi." Giotto, being a fast eater, chewed the last of his food and then turned to face him. The half-omelet laid, almost untouched, on Tsuna's plate. "In case you were wondering, Hibari-kun doesn't know of my job yet. And it would hardly matter if he did because I have a good relationship with the Student Council President."

Tsuna lowered his head and ate a tad bit faster. It wasn't the first time that he tried to persuade Giotto. The last time he attempted to, it was a complete failure and it ended with him falling down the stairs spectacularly and smashing his nose into the ground. The brunet winced inwardly at the brief memory. He certainly did not want to relieve that painful experience again anytime soon.

"Well, I'm leaving in ten minutes time so finish preparing by then. And I'll be in home with both sets of keys by six so you can just knock when you reach home. Simple to accomplish, just don't be late."

Tsuna gobbled down his food and wiped at his mouth hastily, glancing up at the blond twice. Somehow, it seemed as if his impression of Giotto was sliding down the meter, fast.

In school, Giotto had always been the silent, stoic, princely, out-of-reach yet perfect type that was always contemplated by other girls to have a vulnerable and fragile demeanor hidden behind that tough front, like how the typical males would act in a manga after their tough exterior was stripped away.

Frankly speaking, Tsuna did believe them for a short moment.

But at the age of seventeen, Tsuna should know better than to trust the portrayal of male main characters in shoujo mangas. Surely, Tsuna was a hundred and ten percent sure by now that Giotto certainly did not have any hidden fragile sides. He was being curt and increasingly straight-to-the-point. Honest at times, yet arrogant and apathetic.

"Are you done?"

Tsuna yanked his socks on, hearing the tear of the fabric against the soles of his feet and spared himself the horror of looking at the large gaping hole formed by immediately fitting both feet into his shoes and tying the shoelaces up. "I'm ready!"

xXxXx

Aoba folded his arms across his chest, tapping his bare right foot against the ground while he pushed Julie who was sleeping sprawled out over the couch away and reached for the control to switch the air-conditioner to a more bearable temperature. Fuck the accursed summer heat. "Hey Enma, when is that small friend of yours coming by?"

The redhead opened the door and peeked out to scan the surroundings, but there was still no sign of Tsuna. He had been doing that continuously for the past ten minutes, only stopping when Aoba shouted at him for allowing all the air-con to escape and the heat to enter the building. And for the first time in history, Julie supported Aoba's views – by tossing a shoe his way.

Enma cringed.

"Tsuna would be here any time soon. He promised me that he would arrive soon."

Aoba slapped away Julie's arm, which threatened to swing _gracefully_ into his face. "You know, I'm only saying this because everyone else is saying the same thing. You and that kid are too close. It gives people a wrong impression, and if you continue this way, you won't find a girlfriend even when you are over the age of thirty."

Enma moved over to the window and stuck his head out looking for any signs hinting at the presence of the brunet. "Tsuna is my best friend. And I don't need a girlfriend. Just having him is enough for m-"

"That's what I mean by weird! Your whole concept is weird!" Aoba started roughly, but lowered his volume to a more acceptable level when Julie's _other_shoe made a kind trip towards the wall beside him, narrowly missing the back of his head by mere inches.

Ignoring the half-dead glare directed at the back of his head, Aoba grabbed the back of his little brother's collar and pulled the poor boy back to safety. "And don't go poking your head out of windows so far that you almost fall out of them. This is the second floor, you know! If you land on the ground head-first, you'll break your neck."

"I'm sorry."

Aoba scoffed and reached out to shut the windows back properly. He swore that he was going to install a tight, sealed room someday so none of his precious cool air would escape from the room by osmosis. Or was it by diffusion?

"Hey, Enma, your boyfriend is here."

"Tsuna isn't my boyfriend. He's just my friend," Enma corrected quickly, his mouth stretching to resemble an embarrassed grimace and he bashfully fingered the hem of his pale yellow over-sized tee-shirt.

Shaking his head in disapproval at his little brother's constant attempts to ignore his helpful advice of being a little _less_ close to Tsuna, Aoba stubbornly stomped back to the couch and plopped down, balancing both of his legs on Julie's tummy, in revenge for the shoe incident earlier.

"Keys are in the top left drawer. Grab them and open the door for you dear friend. But if he radiates more heat into this room, I'll be sure to toss him out. No joke."

"Alright. I'll warn Tsuna to keep his heat to himself."

There was no possible known way for Tsuna to do that, but Enma knew that the most basic step of successful communication with Aoba was to play along with his whims. Although technically speaking, Aoba was one year older than him, there were times when he presented characteristics that showed his immaturity.

Aoba scoffed and crossed his legs in one swift movement, intentionally connecting his knee with Julie's left cheek. "Great, I shall hold you to your words."

Enma instantly regretted saying what he did, especially when he opened the door to allow the panting brunet to enter. Tsuna was sweating profusely and looked like he just sprinted all the way over here. Oh god.

"Tsuna, you look like you need a bath."

Enma returned the brunet's smile rather timidly when he abruptly pulled him into the apartment and closed the front door before Aoba had a chance to complain about the heat again. There was no doubt that this year's weather was slightly more warm than the previous years.

Aoba's head snapped up and his mouth pressed into a thin line of disgust when he viewed Tsuna's face which was flushed from the hot summer heat. "Spare towels are in the bottom left drawer under the sink! Just dump it into the laundry basket when you are done using it. And keep at least a two meters distance away from me. Man, you're heating this crappy place up!"

Tsuna hastily stepped past Enma and moved to the shower area. The redhead's house wasn't small – it was a house with two floors, connected by a flight of stairs – but it wasn't considered large either since there at least six people living here.

"Do you want to change your clothes, Tsuna? I can lend a set to you. I just washed and dried it this morning."

The door to the bathroom opened slightly, and the brunet peeked out from the small opening. A hand reached out to accept the clothes that Enma passed him. Tsuna simply refused to open the door any wider – because he was half naked (he didn't really mind since Enma helped him bandage his wounds on many accounts), but Aoba and that perverted guy who went by the name of Julie Katou was around.

"If you don't mind, Enma. I'll be sure to wash and return them to you in school tomorrow."

An orange and red striped shirt as well as a dark blue sweatpants was stuffed past the small opening, and Tsuna accepted it gratefully before he moved to take the towel which Aoba mentioned about.

"Then, I'll switch the heater on now, Tsuna."

"Thank you." Tsuna heard the soft click of a switch being flipped and went ahead to hang his clean clothes up behind the door, making sure that they were kept a distance apart from his own dirty ones. Then he went into the shower area and turned the red shower tap a fraction.

Almost instantly, the water splashed down from the shower head – cold in the beginning but quickly turning from warm to hot. The brunet flinched and immediately fiddled with the blue tap so the temperature of the water was brought back to a comfortable range.

Sighing when he washed his perspiration off, Tsuna bent over to grab the shampoo bottle. It was half-empty and smelt of strawberries – which reminded him of Enma, and that was the reason why Tsuna guessed that the shampoo belonged to his best friend.

Tsuna knew that Enma wasn't a big fan of scented soaps, but he would still use them often because that was what the other family members bought for him whenever they were on their monthly shopping spree for necessities – and the redhead never ever tagged along on one of those trips because he always supposed that he would be a burden with his constant tripping and lack of physical strength.

So Enma had no chance to complain against the choice of soap, not that he would ever do so either. His heart to accept whatever was given to him was exactly what made Enma an excellent sibling.

As well as a faithful friend, Tsuna mused.

The brunet sighed and shut off the tap after he made sure that he cleaned off all traces of body soap. Smiling in relief at how the water successfully managed to loosen out his tense muscles which were overworked from his speedy jog towards Enma's house, Tsuna used the towel to dry his matted brown hair slowly before pulling on the clothes Enma loaned him.

They fitted him as good as they did on Enma – considering that the redhead had a tendency to wear clothes at least one size bigger than himself. Looking into the small mirror mounted on the bathroom wall, Tsuna couldn't help but think that he looked a little better than usual after a warm shower and dressed in his favorite color, orange.

"I'm done," Tsuna announced with a brilliant smile curving his lips upwards as he turned the doorknob and steeped out, just to stare straight into a screen showing an image of a large, zoomed-in, ghostly pale and disfigured face.

Tsuna let out his trademark high-pitched _manly _shriek, dropping _gracefully _to his knees while both of his hands flew up to cover his eyes so he didn't have to view the absolutely terrifying image.

He did not expected to view something like that upon leaving the washroom, and Tsuna felt the urge to lock himself inside the washroom for, at least the next ten minutes, so he can get over his fear first.

Tsuna physically flinched when Aoba paused the movie and left the screen showing the picture of the woman glaring straight into his eyes, her lone stormy-gray eye locked in a staring competition with his own two caramel orbs.

"W-W-What was that about?"

Aoba raised a brow at the question Tsuna raised as Enma slowly shuffled over to his side to hold on tightly to the sleeve of the shirt Tsuna was wearing. On the other hand, the only other person still in the house – Julie Katou, sat up on the couch and rubbed both of his eyes as he yawned widely.

"Ju-on. It's a horror movie directed by Takashi Shimizu," Aoba offered, not attempting to supply any form of helpful answers. When he noticed the horrified expression Tsuna had on and how Enma tightened his grip on the brunet's sleeve, Aoba sighed and pressed a button on the remote control so as to switch off the television set.

"Sorry Tsuna. I really tried to stop my brother but he refused to listen."

Aoba frowned in annoyance, dumping the remote control onto the top of a stack of magazines placed on the edge of the coffee table. "Really, what's wrong with trying to watch a horror flick on this hot summer afternoon. It helps to calm my nerves, goddammit!"

"Just ignore him." Julie muttered, pulling out a cigarette to smoke on as he threaded a hand through his hair so that his bed hair would be smoothed out. "Aoba-kun woke up from the wrong side of the bed this morning and he didn't finish his cup of coffee after breakfast either."

"Huh? What did you say, you idiotic asshole playbo-" Aoba never had much respect for the older teenager, with one of the reasons due to his flirtatious nature and that hatred just increased when Julie slapped a hand over his mouth rudely to shut him up mid-sentence.

Julie shot Tsuna a thumbs-up and looked over at Enma. "Hear the doorbell? I've ordered the burgers already. Just take the cash from my wallet and pass it to the delivery kid."

Enma nodded and walked over to the door, only to stop when he recalled that he had no idea where the wallet was. Turning over to face Julie, Enma tilted his head to the side in an unspoken question.

"My wallet is on the shoe rack beside the door. After you pay, just bring it to me. Make sure that you don't drop anything on your way back in, and double-check for the right amount of change given. Sometimes, the delivery boys are in desperate need for tips that they fail at math."

Tsuna was about to demand why Julie didn't just go to get the food himself if he had so many comments to make, however he just remembered that he was the guest here – and it was out of place for him to say anything offensive in nature. Also, Julie was busy preventing Aoba from lashing out sentence after sentence of profanities and detached reasoning, so Enma would be able to actually hear what the McDonald's home delivery man was speaking.

Besides, if their roles were reversed, Tsuna was certain that Enma would definitely be unable to keep Aoba in his place (not that Julie was performing a good job either).

Enma slid the change given to him back into Julie's branded leather wallet and held it firmly in his left hand as the delivery kid passed him the two full packets of food. Nodding his head his head in a word of silent thanks, Enma then proceeded to move their lunch into the dining room.

It was guaranteed that the redhead would be careful, since there was nothing left to eat around the house and this was actually one of the few times that Julie, one of the flat-out misers in Namimori, actually attempted to treat them to a meal.

Not that it was a surprise or anything, the essence was in the fact that this was a rare chance, and it was precious.

"Need me to help with anything? I can help to carry the bags to the dining room too." Tsuna held out a hand and waited patiently for Enma to pass one of the bags over to him. But instead, Enma looked up to him with a cautious expression.

"No. Tsuna, you're the guest today. You don't have to do anything."

The brunet waved both of his hands in front of him, hoping that his friend got the meaning of that action. "You don't have to treat me like a guest!"

How ironic, hadn't Giotto said something around the same meaning to him just this morning?

"Yes, of course you don't. He's your boyfriend, right? You should treasure him all the better and make him help you when you need the aid." Aoba suggested, smirking slightly as he grabbed the plastic bags easily out of Enma's hands, and took three strides towards the dining area and started distributing the food to the rightful owners.

"McSpicy, anybody?" Aoba hollered at the top of his lungs and Julie raised a trembling hand up to signal that he was the one who ordered that particular burger. The other hand was clutching at his stomach tightly, which was in acute pain after Aoba socked him accurately in one of his vitals.

That would certainly teach Julie to start making mental notes about Aoba, since he probably forgotten that Aoba was trained in many different areas of martial arts since he was still seven.

Julie half-crawled and half-stumbled over to his seat at the table and bit into his burger, only to yelp when he swallowed. "Aoba-kun! Why is this thing so spicy?"

"Because it's supposed to be. It's McSPICY dammit! Stop trying to shred the damn burger to pieces and hide it from my view. Just eat that piece of crap up to the very last morsel!"

Tsuna's hand hovered over the packet of french fries, only to return to scratch the back of his head awkwardly when Julie turned to him for help. "Um, I think that Julie-san should finish the burger too. Because wasting food is not a really good idea since..."

Aoba snickered when the light of hope in Julie's eyes died out, replaced by a look of pure despair. It was apparent that Julie had thought the brunet would be his timely savior from the spice world – but then again, Enma might have helped him if Julie cared to ask.

Too bad Tsuna was raised with a firm belief in his mother's values and trusted that cooked food (no matter in whatever shape or form) was not to be wasted. Unless it was completely inedible.

Tsuna sighed inwardly. "Julie-san, fries might help to, you know, sooth the spiciness. And coke would too. Or do you want plain water instead? That's the best choice."

Julie muttered something that vaguely resembled the word 'traitor' before going back to nibble at the bread dejectedly, making up his mind not to touch any part of the chicken patty.

He didn't really enjoy eating anything spicy, especially since Adel stuffed his mouth full of chilli upon their very first encounter. That was a long way back in terms of years, and very frightening to recall. Julie shuddered involuntarily, similar to how he always did when he thought of something he didn't want to think about.

"Aren't you going to eat more, Tsuna? You only had five fries so far." Enma broke the silence with one of his methods to divert the topic. Tsuna wondered vaguely if Enma even knew that he had that kind of power. Probably not.

"I ate breakfast very late today - at almost two, so I'm not really hungry yet."

Aoba chewed a huge chunk of the BigMac held in his right hand. "Then I'm glad I didn't order a BigMac for you too. Your stomach would probably burst."

Tsuna didn't bother to correct Aoba's misconception by telling him that the stomach was actually a distensible bag which could hold up to two liters of food at any one point of time. That would be more than enough to store the burger and his pathetically small amount of breakfast.

However, Tsuna remained silent because he didn't feel like eating anymore. Besides, Giotto had to go to _work_ on the same amount of food as he had, so who was he to complain about this predicament. At least he didn't have to slog his life away on some random job that didn't even fetch a high pay.

Which reminded Tsuna again. He forgot to inquire abut Giotto's job. What was it anyway?

"Tsuna? Are you listening to me?"

"Oops, sorry. You were saying?" The brunet snapped back to the present in a blink of an eye, slightly disbelieving that he spaced out for the second time that day, and managed to miss out the words of the two most important people in his life – his mother and Enma.

And the worse thing was both times was due to him thinking about Giotto. Great, just plain old great.

"Enma was asking if you wanted to play a video game. Since I spent half an hour digging the game station out from the storage room, I thought that everyone could have fun and let life be a little more like how it was in the past."

The past.

The times when Aoba, Enma and himself would lie on their bellies, right in front of the television set, challenging each other to matches one after another. And at the end of the day, the three of them would tabulate the scores and the one with the lowest would have to treat the other two to ice-cream.

Oh, and there was still that part about how Tsuna always managed to lose. Even Enma seemed to be way better than him – although part of the reason might be due to Aoba being the owner of the game set and the two brothers being able to practice on it day and night.

Or it might just be the side of him loving to lose at both games and well, everything else.

"And it's my win again." Aoba pointed at the television screen showing '1P wins' and roared with laughter. "Either you really suck at playing this genre of video games or you just suck totally. Choose one option, Tsuna."

Tsuna winced. Why did everyone seem to become so mean to him? Loud-mouthed Aoba seemed to like teasing him a lot recently - actually it was ever since they entered middle school and the people who were teasing him switched their target to Enma when the redhead attempted to help him – Aoba had misunderstood the situation, thinking that it was due to their close relationship that Enma would be pulled into the fights as well.

And then there was still Giotto.

Giotto was so different from how he normally was at school. His indifference to both teachers and students alike might be what made him popular with the girls in school – but then again, all the students that looked to be from a foreign country were generally popular, so much so that Tsuna was wondering if those fan-girls actually had a fetish regarding overseas students.

"But to lose every game that you participate in without even a counter, your skills have dropped again, Tsuna." Enma mentioned, his tone a little more monotonous than usual while he brushed a bang out to his eyes.

Aoba nodded twice in agreement. "That's right, that's right. But anyway, won't your mother be worried if you down get home soon? We've played ten matches and it's 5 pm already. Didn't you use to say that the curfew your Mom set for you is at 6?"

Tsuna glanced at the clock mounted on the wall behind the television set, and a grimace broke out on his face. Because he recently completed the entire course of examinations and it seemed so enjoyable for him to actually have some time to sit down and relax that it actually forgot the timing.

Crap.

He still had to drop by the mart to do some grocery shopping. When he reached home, he had to finish the housework, wash the laundry and prepare dinner. Besides, his mother would call him in an hour's time to check up on his condition – because she was kind of worried of leaving him all alone in Japan.

"Sorry, I need to go home now!" Tsuna gasped and sprung up to his feet, going over to the entrance to search for his pair of shoes among the many others.

"Keys are in the usual place. Just toss them back into the house after you use them!" Aoba stretched out on the couch, seeing as Julie went up to his own room soon after they started playing video games, since he felt that they were childish and not worth watching.

The tossing of keys wasn't a different thing that happened whenever Tsuna had to leave Enma's home, because no one really wanted to squeeze through the long and small corridor to reach the front door. The person who used the keys would just throw them in and the next person who wanted to use it will pick it up and toss it back in after use.

"Bye, Tsuna."

"Yeah! See you in school tomorrow, Enma!"

And with that, Tsuna sprinted down the streets to the nearest mart in the area, rushing to grab the freshest foodstuffs available. He knew that with so many residents living in the area, there wouldn't be much left, especially when it was already this late into the day.

Besides, Tsuna didn't really know what he should purchase since he hadn't made up his mind on what he wanted to prepare for dinner yet. Maybe fried noodles or fried rice would be a great choice since it could be cooked easily and the ingredients are cheap too.

"Ow, that hurt!" There was the voice of a girl right in front of him and Tsuna immediately looked up to apologize when a slight blush shaded his cheeks. The girl who scrambled for her book, had her black long hair braided back and was wearing a pink dress with black tights, dolled up as if she was on a date. "I'm sorry for not looking at where I'm going. Are you okay?"

It was then that Tsuna realized that he had fallen backwards due to the impact – instead of the girl, he was the one who fell. Talk about manliness. Embarrassed, he accepted the hand the girl held out to him, and with a small smile on his face, allowed himself to be pulled back to him feet. "I'm fine, thanks for the help."

The girl reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on so she could take a better look at the person in front of her. "Are you sure?"

"I-pin! Please do not run off first all alone anymore, especially when you don't know the streets well. Did you remember how you lest your way the last time and I had to spend three hours looking for you because you couldn't see any signboards?"

A dark haired man appeared around the corner and placed a hand on the shoulder of the girl whom Tsuna had been speaking to several moments ago.

"I brought my glasses with me this time round. Don't worry so much, big brother."

Tsuna's facial expression melted from shock to one of horror when the raven haired man raised his head up and the stormy-gray eyes met his. "H-Hibari-san? Why are you here?"

I-pin pivoted around on her heel, spinning to place both of her arms on Tsuna's shoulders. "Hibari? As in Kyouya? Are you an acquaintance of Kyouya? Don't tell me you are the reason why Kyouya refuses to pick up his telephone calls at night and refuses to return home?"

Tsuna blanched, turning a nasty shade of blue when I-pin's violent shakes of his body frame increased in intensity. It became even worse when the Hibari look-alike placed a hand on her shoulder again, to calm her. The shakes stopped abruptly, and the poor brunet felt a wave of nauseousness hit him almost instantly.

"Sorry," the man apologized sincerely. "Please allow me to introduce myself properly. My name is Fon and the person you were mentioning about earlier, Kyouya, is my nephew. This lady is I-pin, my younger sister, and we just moved to Japan from China two weeks ago. Nice to meet you."

Tsuna bent his back and bowed the top half of his body for sixty-three degrees, just like what Fon just did. He definitely believed what Fon just said, because there was no way Hibari would ever smile like that, or speak with a weird foreign accent, or grow his hair out that long in just two days.

"Uh, I'm Sawada Tsunayoshi. Nice to meet you too."

I-pin held Fon's black long sleeve (how the man managed to survive in the hot summer heat while dressed in such long and thick clothing was beyond Tsuna) and smiled amiably at the brunet. "Let's say, if you have time, won't you come and find Kyouya together with us? I think you would probably be able to persuade him to come home once in a while. It's always fun to put Fon and Kyouya together on the chair and try to spot ten differences!"

"N-No! Thanks for the offer but I need to reach home before six and I'm not in that kind of relationship with Hibari-san! Really, I'm serious!"

I-pin smirked at Tsuna, one corner of her mouth mischievously raised in disbelief, and removed her spectacles, pushing them back into her pocket.

"Stop bullying him, I-pin." Fon sighed and glanced briefly at his wristwatch. "But there's only seventeen minutes left until six in the evening. Do you want a lift home? That is, if your house is near Namimori High."

Yes, the apartment Tsuna lived in was indeed near the school, but he still had other things to worry about – such as dinner. He still hadn't bought anything to cook yet, and for him to make a trip to the mart and back home within that time frame was almost near impossible.

"Not really. Although I don't really have the time, I still have to do shopping for dinner before returning." Tsuna scratched the back of is head awkwardly.

Fon passed a box over to Tsuna, and stacked three cups of instant noodles on it. "Is this enough? Since Kyouya isn't home, and we can't eat so much, then it wouldn't be a bad thing to give some to Kyouya's friend, right?"

I-pin looked up from reading her Chinese novel. "Oh, that's a treat. It's Fon's homemade gyoza dumplings!"

Tsuna threaded a hand through his chocolate brown locks, and smiled meekly up at the two siblings.

He didn't know if he should be glad that he met such kind people who helped him, or he should be wary because they seemed to be a little too kind – especially since those two people were Hibari-san's relative and judging by Hibari-san's personality, his relatives should be pretty scary too.

In any case, Tsuna knew that he should really start running if he wanted to reach home on time.

Giotto did tell him not to be late this morning as well, and what Tsuna wanted was for the both of them to share a good relationship, and not to anger Giotto on the second day. As the saying goes, not only the first impression counts.

Bowing numerous times towards the siblings, Tsuna repeated his goodbyes and dashed home at the fastest speed he could use with confidence that he wouldn't fall. It would probably be bad if he did, not that it was good to trip, ever.

Skidding to a stop a little ways in front of his house eight minutes after he left Fon and I-pin, Tsuna noticed that there was a girl standing right in front of the front door. She had short light brown hair and was shifting her weight from one foot to another while clutching at a box which Tsuna recognized as the container for the bakery store across the street.

"Kyoko-chan, why are you standing in front of my house? Do you need something?"

Today was yet another weird day, Tsuna pondered the reason as to why he was meeting people that he knew all around town – first it was the infamous Hibari Kyouya's uncle, and now even Kyoko-chan.

He was never be able to meet any of the people he knew, on a normal day, no matter how long he tried to stay outdoors.

Kyoko laughed heartily and gripped the gift in her hands tighter. "Tsuna-kun. I'm sorry, I thought that Giotto-kun's new address was here so I wanted to buy a cake to hold a housewarming party for him."

"Giotto?" Tsuna blinked, looking behind Kyoko to catch a glimpse of blond hair through the window – its owner shaking his head and glaring straight at him. "Uh, I think you might have the wrong address. Giotto isn't living here. This is my house. I'm sorry, Kyoko-chan."

"Don't apologize to me, Tsuna-kun. It's my fault for mistaking the address." Kyoko held out the box of cake towards the brunet. "If you don't mind, you can have this cake. It's from the bakery across the street and I can't possibly finish this on my own. Please do me this favor, Tsuna-kun."

Tsuna accepted the box, which was larger and heavier than what he accepted. Judging by the size of the box itself, Tsuna could predict that it was probably a whole cake, and one of those really large ones. How on earth was he going to be able to finish eating the cake before the expiry date?

"Then, I guess I'll see you again in school tomorrow. Bye, Tsuna-kun!"

xXxXx

**Author's notes: **This is even longer than the last chapter. I wonder how I actually managed to complete it. Sigh, I'm practically half-dead right now since this took me much longer than expected to type out. But oh, it was fun. Well then, I'm probably going to keep around this word count, so please do review for this chapter as well! Especially if you do love the long chapters (:


	4. of  stalkers and dinner

**Rinatsu **It really did encourage me. Thank you so much. **Aki Sou **Haha, I'm not going to add in 1827, it's implied and completely a misunderstanding on I-Pin's part. Hibari gets his own guy (yes, guy) but it isn't Tsuna or Giotto. I'll have to say no to Hibari/Giotto. With Giotto's personality in this fanfiction, it would be like pairing two Hibari(s) together D; **Breathless02 **There will be side pairings, but not 0027 or 2700. Their relationship is intimate but merely platonic. Ow, contradictory. **Suzu no Miya **G27 is my OTP, I'm glad that you support them too (: **EK12 **Which choice should I consider? But you'll find out soon. Come on, just scroll down. **Piratelizard101 **It's uh 10,000 in one chapter. But don't worry, as weird as it sounds, I'm getting addicted to typing long chapters as of lately ._. About Aoba, didn't I explain it in the previous chapter already? The people who were bullying Tsuna at first switched their target when Enma tried to help Tsuna. Aoba had misunderstood the situation, thinking that it was due to their close relationship that Enma was pulled into the fights. **Dark Gothic Lolita **Thank you for the encouragement, it helped a lot. And look, a new chapter has just been posted, beep. **Kichou **I like Fon too, he's cordial ^^ And I don't hate Hibari or his looks either, so everything works out fine. Now, just to show Tsuna this point. **231368535 **Thank you very much! My writing style is one of the few things that I have many internal battles over, especially since I tend to switch styles a lot, based on which story I'm typing.**GhoulTears **XD Hugs. There's no need to elaborate any further. **lemonteaa **Giotto really does give off the impression that he is perfect, but no human is, and a perfect Giotto will not no fun. We've got to make him depend on Tsuna at times too, right? That's where the fluffy love feeling will originate from. **XxShiroumiArisaxX **Sure thing! Lawl. **CH0C0CANDYZ **You'll know the answer really soon, scroll down. **alwayztora **I'll definitely continue it, don't worry. Thank you for liking this, it gives me motivation to continue writing as well. And I'm Japanese. Don't start stereotyping, I do take English classes too. **cheesydubu **Thank you very much, for the luck and the review (: **Dream36 **For me, ranting leads to procrastination so it's not all that awesome after all. Really, there's a short story about Giotto and Iemitsu's relationship but I can't reveal it so soon because there's no way Giotto would tell Tsuna about it yet. Be patient, and your review made me laugh, in a good way. **Alkenet **Thank you for your review, I like writing the long chapters too, it allows me to delve deeper into the story and mention the details rather than just scraping past the tip of it.**XxxKimi-chan **Thank you very much. you had me smiling at the screen when I read this, no joke. I'll probably keep it withing 6k to 8k. 10K is a little too time-consuming, especially when I read through it again. Somehow take a long time to do my checking... But don't worry, my fingers aren't bleeding or anything. Thanks ^^ It's finally updated ;D **Hazzy **I appreciate the thought and the effort you take to review this. Well, let's hope Q comes across this again, I'll like to hear the answer too ^^ **Taira-keimei **I hope that everyone loves reading long chapters, as much as they are time-consuming to type, they are time-consuming to read as well. Thanks for the review, I love long chapters too! Lol. **Carbonara **Examinations. In less than a month time, I'll finally be able to sit for my entrance exams, after which I'll start my daily camping in front of the computer. Really, I shouldn't be typing fanfiction now, but hey, it's a effective method to de-stress. Ushishishishi *shot* **Bishi-bishi **Age limit for M-fics? Who cares? The internet is a free place after all. I'm only 15 and I type them, let's simply ignore the rules the adults set XO **Inoke-F **Thank you. **LivingGlow **0.0 I'm thinking that I'm tying too many thanks as replies to reviews this time round, but thanks again. **MissDinosaur **It's updated. Chapter 4 is here. **Deds**I'll pretend I understood that. I'm joking, I went to translate it. As long as the net translators are correct, my understanding of what you reviewed is pretty much correct too. **Hikari-Hikaru-Hikari **Nice, I love your review. About the 'if they don't want to read the story, then why do they read it' question is so _so_ true. **xXxAnimeFanatic18xXx **Yes, a M-fic. Writing is getting too fun recently. Must. Hold. Back. And. Start. Studying. Gawd -.-**.hibari **Ironic, I love this story too. Okay weird, I sound like a narcissist now. OTL **Kuro-chan** Sure, that's Tsuna's job. Long-live, G27. **PrimoLover**Thanks for the gauge, it helps. **TruancyCity **Fourth thing that made me laugh while facing my computer screen this morning. Everyone will think that I'm going mad again. Thank you for expressing your views because it helped to quell the disappointment, etc, and gave me the motivation to continue on. **kihlia **Sure thing, thanks for the review and for following this fic! **CeruleanAndGray **I was rather shocked when it was deleted too. As for the length per chapter, I'll go with the majority. **sakearose** Thank you very much. **DiamondGoddess**Sure, it's taken into account. Kudos for the encouragement ;D **Letizia-chan **Well you are right. No need to worry, I'll definitely continue it. **Random person on a PSP **Thanks, I enjoy typing this fic very much too, especially the times when ideas swarm into my head all at one go! **DoMiNo OnImOd**Thanks so much for noticing my effort. Most readers don't. **Fangirl1203 **Sorry, guess I needed more time than expected to regain my ideas from before the exams and to warm up into typing again. Then there's the whole proofreading of 12 pages worth of words (which unfortunately I fell asleep before I was done). But now it's here, and as of now, I'm also working on the next chapter so I'm pretty certain it would be completed way faster! Now then, please enjoy :D **Pure Flames**Haha, thanks. And the updates really do take longer than expected. I'm pratically juggling my time slots to fit in all the time needed to type fanfiction. And having three ongoing fics at the same time isn't a good choice. Ugh, my head hurts.

**of stalkers and dinner  
><strong>家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN! © 天野明; Beta-ed by AlixNight

Tsuna hated Mondays. It was a good thing that school had a delayed opening today, but he would always wake up too early in this situation because he always forgot to set his alarm to the correct time.

Mondays also consisted of a bad start of a whole new week filled with violent lessons taught by spartan school teachers and large, suffocating piles of homework. More importantly, it represented another week's worth of encounters and injuries inflicted by merciless bullies who enjoyed doing nothing more than picking on pathetic kids, namely himself.

And then again, there was that problem with Giotto.

He had never gotten around to asking the blond if they should be keeping their relationship a secret. It wasn't a huge problem since they were in different grades, but Giotto might not want others to know of the fact that the woman his father remarried with had such a loser for a kid. In fact, he was almost certain of it.

Then, as if in agreement, Giotto glowered down at Tsuna who began fiddling with the strap of his bag anxiously when he felt annoyance literally radiating off the blond. "What I mean is you should probably head off to school first. "Kyoko-chan might misunderstand if she saw the both of us going to school together, and I don't know what to tell her about the cake either."

Tsuna inherited an unknown allergy to strawberries from his grandmother, and when all their neighbors politely declined his gift, the entire thing practically disappeared into the trash can. So in order to avoid waste brain cells thinking for an excuse, the brunet had decided to steer clear of her today.

"Do I look like I actually care? Males don't usually concern themselves with details to that extent, unless you're really as manly as you look," Giotto scoffed, amusement clouding within the depths of his honey-colored irises. "And don't mention that girl's name, she's nothing more than a nuisance. She's been hanging around me a bit too much for my liking."

Tsuna forced his lips to curve upwards. His impression of the ever-perfect human being, Vongola Giotto – coming across to him as rude, curt and arrogant - had recently dropped by yet another notch. It was strange how much his one-sided love could turn into one filled with doubt in a mere three days.

Given, he might not have spoken to his senior all that much seeing as Giotto was a second-year who was a prominent candidate for the position of the 26th Student Council President – and would have probably won if he didn't decide at the last moment that the duties which came along with the the position would be too much of a hassle, choosing instead to stride off the stage without so much as a backwards glance.

Compared to that, Tsuna knew that he was just another first-year student who would rather stay out of sight if it promised fewer bullies and bruises. He was a scaredy-cat after all. "Tsunayoshi, you seem to enjoy ignoring me whenever I'm trying to speak to you seriously."

The baritone sliced through the growing haze and the brunet snapped out of his silly little inner monologue, hastily shaking his head furiously to disagree with Giotto's views. "No, I never mean to ignore you. Really."

Giotto snorted in response to Tsuna's remark, preoccupied with the chore of fitting his feet into the hideous black leather school shoes and tying the laces in a swift, practiced motion. "Do you have anything to add in an attempt to make your pathetic excuse seem slightly more believable?"

At that, the brunet's lips pulled down into a tight grimace as a warm feeling spread its way across his cheeks. Almost tentatively, he shook his head slowly from side to side. Giotto tossed Tsuna's pair of shoes over to the him. "You have one minute to get your feet into these things before I leave without you."

The brunet dived instantaneously and almost managed to catch both of them, but the right one hit the side of his hand and changed direction, flying towards the wall instead. Frantically, Tsuna scrambled after it, successfully managed to drop his toast on the floor tiles butter side down.

"I can say that I've grown used to your klutziness in the past two days, so you don't have to sit there and start turning red. If you have time to do that, then kindly inform me if you have people to walk home with or am I supposed to babysit you afterschool as well?"

Tsuna grabbed the tissue box and scrubbed at the stubborn, oily residue on the ground. "I'll usually be walking to school with Enma and I'll wait for him after school too. It's a tradition for us ever since pre-school."

Giotto rolled his honey-gold irises while leaning against the shoe rack, arms folded and fingers tapping impatiently. "Enma? Is that the name of that friend you have to phone every night?"

"Yes," Tsuna clarified. "Kozato Enma. He's my best friend and we've known each other for more than a decade already. Enma has six other siblings, and he's the youngest. I'm not exactly close with his brothers but out of them all, I'm closest to Aoba."

The blond froze, inclining his head to shoot Tsuna a look full of unpleasant doubt waiting to be unraveled. "About that Aoba you are referring to, is he that loud-mouthed person who looks like he can study, but in reality his level of intelligence is less than that of a pig's?"

Tsuna hesitated for a second before nodding. Rude as it might be, there were no other pleasant descriptive words that could be applied when trying to paint an image of the other boy.

"I have bad memories of that person. I was forced to sit next to him on the very first day of school and he called me a flamboyant bastard after two seconds of looking at me. We haven't spoken a word since. Don't tell me that that Enma kid has the same-"

"No! Enma isn't like that at all. He is the nicest out of all his siblings and very, very different from Aoba." The redhead was indeed worlds apart from his brother, especially when there was a knock on the front door and Giotto opened it to reveal vermilion irises and hands caked in mud. Enma was nothing like his older brother, the atmosphere around him paled in comparison to the confident aura Aoba released.

He shifted uncomfortably, glancing twice upwards at the glowering blond before cringing in upon himself. Giotto was blocking the entrance into the house, seemingly not considering to move to the side. Enma waited impatiently, his right arm was throbbing painfully and he cast a pleading look towards Tsuna.

"Um, Giotto?" Tsuna called, with a hint of anxiety perfectly hidden within his tones, gently tapping the blond's left shoulder with his index finger. Giotto rolled his eyes before slipping out through the small opening between Enma and the door frame, making sure to pocket his set of keys on the way out.

Enma pulled his friend out of the doorframe and towards the street, wrenching the brunet's gaze away from the departing back. "We're going to be late if you don't hurry."

"I'm sorry." The brunet immediately twisting around to lock the door behind him. The clock mounted on the far end of the wall read ten minutes to nine, the remaining time was about to be spent running to school in a mad dash in hopes of not getting a detention. Grimacing, Tsuna pivoted around his heel to meet an unexpected head of light brown tresses, complete with an unnatural shine to it.

"Good morning, Tsuna-kun."

Tsuna blanched when he caught sight of Sasagawa Kyoko - the current top idol of Namimori High - the soft smile on her face promising danger and pain, before turning to the side to seek help from Enma. Meanwhile, the redhead's back was pressed hard against the wall, the stark black material of his blazer sharp against the light beige of the walls when his gynophobia kicking in at an untimely interval.

Kyoko's smile grew in size before she inclined her head to the side cutely, caramel irises glinting brilliantly. "Isn't Giotto living together with you? Why did you lie to me when I came over last night? Is there a need for you to do so?"

Swallowing harshly, Tsuna felt his stomach churn almost nauseatingly while he continued to stare hard at his shoes whilst frantically wriggling his toes within them. Anything was fine, as long as it proved useful in keeping him distracted from this overly-tense atmosphere.

"Enma-kun, if you don't mind, can you please leave first? I want to speak to Tsuna-kun _alone_."

Against what other people would consider as better judgment, Enma shook his head, heading over to Tsuna's side when Kyoko took a threatening step nearer to him. He was determined not to leave the two alone together, but started to change his mind when Tsuna pressed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Enma. I'll be alright. We both know that Kyoko-chan is a nice person, right? She wouldn't hurt me-"

Probably. The last word choked itself within Tsuna's throat, refusing to be spoken out aloud.

Nodding twice, Enma frantically skittered off towards the general direction of Namimori High. He was never one to stand being near girls who he never spoke to before, especially the types like Kyoko, who had an overpowering presence. Being bullied for months on end after muttering a small greeting to the school idol when they were still in elementary school must have left a larger impact on Enma than expected.

"Now that everyone is gone, don't you think it's about time to confess, Tsuna-kun? Did Giotto-kun tell you anything about me?"

Tsuna wriggled his toes which were comfortably hidden in his shoes and glanced up twice. Kyoko was standing with both hands on her hips, evidently waiting impatiently for his answer. "Uh, no. Giotto never told me anything about you. In fact he doesn't tell me anything at all because the two of us aren't really close."

A pair of eyebrows arched skywards at what she imagined to be an obvious lie. "Second question. What are you to Giotto-kun?"

Red flared across Tsuna's cheeks and spread down to dust the bridge of his nose while his mouth hung open from excessive shock. "I-I don't think our relationship is what you think it is, Kyoko-chan! I mean, we are just siblings!"

"Siblings? It's obvious that Giotto-kun is an only child."

Tsuna gaped, thoughts going to thinking that Giotto would and should most probably have told this piece of vital information to his girlfriend by now. Well, obviously he hadn't – if the look of suspicion on Kyoko-chan's face was anything to go by.

"We just became siblings after our parents got married recently. So even though we have no blood ties with each other, the two of us are legally known as siblings."

Smiling in an innocent child-like manner, she twirled a strand of hair between her thumb and forefinger. "I see. Then can I come over tonight for dinner?"

Tsuna didn't hesitate before giving her a sharp nod of agreement, knowing fully well that if he did, it would raise unneeded suspicion. That was the lone unwanted thing right now.

"Thank you very much for the invitation, Tsuna-kun. If you don't mind, do you want to accompany me on the way to school? I know of a shortcut and it only takes four minutes to get to school!" The edges of Kyoko's lips lifted in an almost taunting style when Tsuna shyly accepted the offer.

Of course, the brunet would have politely rejected if he had a choice to do so, provided that he had sufficient time to arrive in school using the normal route he knew of before the bell rang. One other thing Tsuna absolutely hated to receive on the first day of the week was to be unceremoniously bitten to death by the infamous disciplinarian – Hibari Kyouya.

Knowing that fully well, the brunet flipped back to reality and gave the strap of his bag one harsh tug before practically dashing down the path which Kyoko guided him along to.

Until she led him round to the back of the school, throwing their bags over the fence before bending down to crawl through the small hole at the bottom of the fence.

Tsuna watched, mouthy hanging wide open while he watched Kyoko slip through the small hole easily and brushing the dust and dirt off herself. It definitely didn't look like something anyone would have expected the top school idol to do.

"What are you doing, Tsuna-kun?" She turned around, a taunting smile lifting her cheeks. "If you don't hurry up, Hibari-kun might chance across here on one of his patrol routes and bite you to death."

xXxXx

Meanwhile, Enma tapped his feet impatiently against the cement pavement quite a distance away from the school gate. He was waiting for his brunet friend, feeling guilty for having left him all alone back there. Hopefully that girl by the name of Kyoko wouldn't be around as well. There was just something about her that gave off a nasty feeling which Enma didn't like, but he couldn't quite put his finger to it.

Whipping out his watch from under his sleeve, Enma glanced at the bold black numbers depicted on the screen itself and gasped. There was only a mere four minutes left before the school bell would go off, punctually at nine in the morning.

Muttering a soft apology to Tsuna, he wasted no time in hesitating before dashing down the early morning streets of Namimori, his face flushed crimson from over-exertion of his body muscles, yet managing to garner enough response to flinch when the pet Chihuahua from across the street squeezed out from between the bars of his neighbor's steel gates and chased after him.

Feet pumping the ground desperately, Enma took the shortest bully-free route towards Namimori High because there was only three minutes left. The redhead did not want to add another blemish to his almost clean record of always being punctual, because that would affect his end of year grades, which when coupled with his hideous results, he would certainly have to face the horror and humiliation of repeating a grade.

Two more minutes.

The front of the school came into view, with several students still streaming into the school compounds. The gates were still wide open, as if welcoming him, but Enma just knew that he wasn't going to make it in time. There was at least a good fifteen meters difference and he only had half a minute left to go.

"Enma!" The sound of a familiar voice cause Enma to jerk his head upwards to stare at his classroom on the second floor. Tsuna was standing right in front of the window, his bag strap clutched tightly in his right hand while his left one was banging against the glass window loudly in order to get the redhead's attention. "Enma, jump!"

And Enma did as he was told. He had absolutely no idea why he was even following such an absurd order but he did it anyway – because it was from Tsuna, and Tsuna will never try to harm him. Landing face-first harshly into the hard cement pavement, the mop of vermillion locks was given a short chance to fan out before Enma rolled twice to his left while praying that he made the right decision and was actually moving towards the school instead of away.

Loud cheers and claps erupted in the vicinity when the school bell of Namimori High resounded throughout the vicinity and Enma managed to cross the border. Another new school day began for the redhead, and he was roughly hoisted up to his feet as a rather rough blow from a metal object connected with his stomach, threatening to make him throw up the cup of water he had for breakfast.

"That's the second time you are late for school this term, herbivore."

Their eyes met, cobalt against vermillion, locking for a split moment before Enma's inferior complex kicked in and the teenager hastily tore his gaze away. He was afraid of angering the infamous Head of the Disciplinary Committee. He had heard of the list of possible punishments a student who broke the school rules might receive – ranging from detentions to severe _righteous_ acts of violence – all of which Enma was certain he didn't want a part in.

"But I crossed the line before the bell rang. I'm not late." Given, the textbooks in his hand flew right out of his grip when he performed the superfluous action a little while ago, but that alone should not be a proper reason for the great and mighty Hibari Kyouya to start picking on him.

"Your shoe is late."

Enma shuffled his feet in embarrassment, the white sock on his right foot seemingly stark against the dark gray floor. His shoe was lying a little after the gate.

"Since it belongs to you, you will be considered late. And school socks are supposed to be black, not white. That's two offenses, Kozato Enma."

The redhead frowned, his eyes glued to the pavement as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. "I'm sorry."

Almost grumpily, Hibari fisted the front of Enma's uniform and tugged, a silent demand for Enma to look into his eyes whenever he was speaking. Enma blatantly refused and a tonfa collided with his forearm in a vicious blow. Enma grabbed at the bruise, trying his best to work through the pain whilst struggling to keep his nonchalant expression on.

"Your detention will be at three after school tomorrow. If you are even a second late, I'll bite you to death."

Enma flinched, agilely side-stepping Hibari when the latter kept his weapons, to sprint up the stairs. When he noticed that the latter wasn't giving chase or attempting to bite his head off, Enma slowed to a slow jog.

"Enma! Are you okay? Did Hibari-san hit you or anything?"

Shaking his head rather furiously to reassure Tsuna, Enma then muttered something ambiguous under his breath before ducking past the doorway and swiftly slipping into his seat, the back of his neck visibly redder than his vermillion locks. He was used to not receiving attention, especially when having all twenty pair of eyes in the classroom trained on him. The redhead shrunk back into the seat more.

At the same time their history teacher, Viper, marched into the classroom and clasped both of his hands together to order for silence. "Look, I'm getting paid to do this so I'm obliged to do a good job of drilling Japan's history into the lumps of meat you people call as your brain. If you get that past your thick skulls, protozoans, then sit up straight and open your textbooks up to page 53."

xXxXx

Vongola Giotto propped his chin up with his right palm, the fingers of his left hand nimbly spinning a pen as he stared wistfully out of the window at the school gates which led to freedom. His best friend, G, sat directly opposite him, an ugly grimace stretching across his face as he stamped piece after piece of paperwork. "I'm bored."

The redhead glanced upwards for a brief moment, crimson irises glinting in annoyance when Giotto tried to twist the seal out of his hand. "Then why don't you go home now? You are bothering me and it's getting late anyway."

"But there's only ten minutes until the school closes at six, and it's been a long time since we last walked home together."

"Two years, three months, twenty days, six hours, fifteen minutes and five seconds to be exact."

Giotto shuddered at G's seriousness and his very detailed time quote and perfect memory, doing a mock-puke before shrugging and propping his legs up on top of the nearest desk.

At the same time, G snickered at his response, viciously shredding a proposal which failed to meet his standard requirements and tossed it unceremoniously into the bin placed beside him.

"And in case you've forgotten, our houses are located in completely opposite directions now. Not to mention that the school will be closing later tonight since Alaude specifically requested for it – with the promise of a bloodbath if the school refuses to cooperate. And he's the almighty President. So if you wait for perhaps another two to three hours, I might be able to leave."

Giotto sighed, glowering at the submitted proposals by students for improvements they wanted to see the school go through for the new year. "I can't wait, because I'm supposed to reach home before seven. It's one of my Dad's curfew rules and he's going to call to check. All the way from Italy."

G rolled his eyes, but not losing any of his tempo as he stamped the student council's seal of approval onto the next few proposals and quickly scribbled their suggestions onto another piece of paper, which was to be submitted to Alaude later to be reviewed. "Since when did you pay attention to them? The last time your father tried to ground you, you even camped out for two nights straight at a manga cafe in order to spite him."

"I'm surprised that you remembered that as well. Wasn't that like quite a few years back?"

"Didn't you just mentioned that I had a fabulous and wonderfully perfect memory?" G bragged jokingly, his tone remaining confident and firm, yet not increasingly arrogant.

"I didn't," Giotto clarified, forcibly loosening his tie while clutching his school bag. "Then I'll be leaving now."

Looking back over his shoulder, Giotto spotted the redhead waving a hand in a sloppy goodbye gesture while keeping his eyes focused on the current tedious task of scrutinizing the various different sentences and piecing them together in his mind.

Really, the blond mused while making his way down the multiple flights of staircases, he wouldn't especially mind staying to help G out with the jobs he undertook as the Vice President for another ten minutes, but he knew that Alaude wouldn't take it lightly if he knew G had asked for help, especially from him.

After all, that twisted man had always thought that his subordinates had to be independent in every possible way.

Pinching the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb, Giotto creased his eyebrows as he bent down to pull off his indoor shoes to trade them for his outdoor ones. His shoe locker was at the height of his chest and so when the blond pulled the door open, he couldn't help but notice a small pink envelope placed neatly inside.

He pulled the equally pink note out and stared at the words, feeling himself shudder involuntarily.

_Today was yet another fun day being together with you, Giotto-senpai! I hope that we can get along perfectly from now on as well. If you don't mind, please call me tonight. Actually, you must do so! I know you have my number because I've given it to you so many times. I'll be waiting impatiently for your call!_

_With love_

_Your Number One Fan_

Crushing it within his bare hands, Giotto tossed the crumpled paper towards the direction where he spotted the glimpse of a suspicious shadow lurking around, making sure that it would hit the side of the metal lockers so the sound would echo noticeably past deserted corridors, and hopefully inform the stalker nearby that her silly little antics were unnecessary.

The blond tugged on his shoes while wearing a particularly large grimace and stepped as silently pas the school gates as possible. He didn't think that whoever who was stalking him wouldn't notice, but in case he or she was currently looking away, then it would be a wonderful chance for him to slink away. Giotto quickly increased the length of his strides, feeling anger and annoyance boiling at the pit of his stomach.

"Giotto-kun! Wait for me! Didn't we promise to go home together?" A feminine voice shouted out behind him. However, unknown to the blond, she was the vice-captain of the softball team and was naturally skipping along, almost managing to keep the exact same distance between both of them.

Frown increasing in intensity, Giotto turned around the corner of the nearest street and started running, all the time keeping a planned route home. He could distinctly hear the sound of rushing footsteps right behind him, and pondered since when did this girl start to follow him around.

Noticing the sound of footsteps slowly dulling behind him, Giotto took the chance to duck through an alleyway and slipped into the closest store to it – which was a bookstore, and flitted past rows after rows of bookshelves until he reached the backdoor.

The store attendant on the shift glared darkly at him, but knew better than to inform him that the customers were not allowed to back door – because the latter was the friend of the boss of all the bookstores and game centers in town, Lampo.

Peeking back to catch the girl entering the store with a small, sweet smile, Giotto lost no time hesitating before throwing open the back door and sprinting off towards his house – making sure to weave through more complicated routes so he could be sure to lose her.

"Giotto? Welcome home." The brunet looked up from his job of watering the pots of flowers placed near the metal front gate, accidentally directing the water from the hose onto his body.

Giotto flinched when the cool water made contact with his skin, heated up by the scorching hot evening sun, and released a low growl of anger under his breath. Tsuna instantly shifted the hose away, showering the plants with more water than required. Annoyed, the dripping wet blond brushed the words off and side-stepped Tsuna to enter the house. "Yeah, I'm home."

"I've invited a guest over for dinner tonight, so I'd be busy with the preparations soon." Tsuna tossed the rubber hose to its rightful place in the corner of the makeshift garden and clambered after the blond clumsily, almost tripping over the length of the hose and his own feet. The brunet made his way towards Giotto and put a hand out to ask for the laundry.

However, Giotto insisted on wringing out each layer of his clothes - squeezing out the cool droplets of water, feeling it trickle down from in between his fingers and falling to the sink below.

"Well, I'll call you when it's time for dinner, so you can just relax and do whatever you want until then," Tsuna informed while putting the load of laundry into the washing machine and pressing the buttons to start the cleaning process. Giotto gave a curt nod of his head, wanting but decided against asking him who the guest was.

He had a feeling he didn't want to know who the person was.

Stepping into the shower area, Giotto turned the blue tap to the maximum so freezing cold water poured down from the shower head. The blond let out a grunt of satisfaction, only feeling truly alive when the iciness of the rivulets of water seeped into his skin.

When the mental clock in his mind struck the alarm of two full minutes, Giotto turned off the tap and dried his hair out with the nearest towel, blatantly ignoring the fact that the only person who would use such a floral patterned cloth was none other than Tsuna. Upon realizing this, Giotto calmly folded the towel and placed it back in its previous spot, using the hair dryer to dry off all the wet spots.

"Welcome! I was just bringing out the food. You can sit on the couch first." Giotto noticed the soft click of the front door opening when he stepped out of the bathroom and winced when he heard the joyful reply to the sentence. There was little doubt that the girl was the one from this afternoon.

With a frown etched across his eyebrows when he heard Tsuna yelling for him, the blond stuffed his hands through all the right holes of his gray hoodie and ambled to the dining room. He wasn't looking forward to seeing the guest, yet was curious as to who it was, although he was certain he had an almost accurate guess based on her voice alone.

"Giotto-kun!" She exclaimed, joyfully clapping both hands together, her light brown hair combed to perfection.

Putting on the perfect demeanor of an aloof character, Giotto sunk into his seat and started to dig in without further ado, all whilst ignoring all the formalities needed to be done before a meal. He couldn't care less and the fact that there was someone in the house staring at him with a large grin wasn't helping the situation at all.

"Kyoko-chan, have some pork ribs." Tsuna was smiling widely as he handed the dish to Kyoko. She in turn, took a piece and placed it in Giotto's bowl.

"Giotto-kun, there you go. It's very delicious."

Giotto resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the praises Kyoko showered the dishes with when she hadn't even eaten any of them yet. And the worse thing was the awkward atmosphere that was created when she insensitively and indirectly praised the brunet's cooking skills, which left Tsuna sitting there stiffly, red staining the tips of his ears.

"She isn't necessarily praising the food, Tsunayoshi." Giotto mumbled under his breath, letting out an irritated muffled growl when Kyoko tried to move her chair again so she would be seated closer to him.

"You knew?" Kyoko blinked in surprise, her mouth falling open in a small 'o'. "But the food is really delicious. I wonder if Giotto-kun can cook too. I'm certain that no matter what he makes, it would be very delicious."

The blond blanched at the mention of his culinary skills, shooting a pointed look at Tsuna to warn him against blurting out anything that would ruin his reputation of being 'the perfect person'. Tsuna remained silent, the only sound coming from him was when his chopsticks knocked into the sides of his bowl.

"If you are done, I'll walk you home, Kyoko-chan. The streets around his area at night might not be safe for a girl alone at night."

"What are you saying? We are still in Namimori, Tsuna-kun. I know this town inside out. Besides even if we meet into someone dangerous, you wouldn't be able to help me." Kyoko giggled, her voice sounding as alluring as church bells chiming on the night of Christmas Eve. At least she left out the part where she concluded that Tsuna was way too scrawny and weak.

Giotto then averted his face, placing his empty plate and bowls in the sink before returning to his own room, managing to keep his eyes from meeting Kyoko's expectant ones for the entire time. He understood that she was waiting for him to volunteer for the job, but Giotto wasn't a helpful person and was most definitely not looking forward to step out of his comfortable house to make sure that his stalker got home just fine.

"Okay, then I'll leave now. See you guys at school tomorrow!"

Once the front door swung shut, Giotto pivoted around his heel and swung out his left fist which connected with Tsuna's neck, holding it in an almost suffocating clutch. When he spoke, his voice was low and rough. "Why did you invite that woman over?"

Tsuna squirmed, obviously unused to being pinned but managed to huff out an indignant reply. "That's because Kyoko-chan suggested it and I found no good reason to reject her offer!"

"That doesn't mean that you have to accept it," Giotto sighed, tightening his grip on Tsuna as if he was trying to channel every ounce of his anger into the poor boy. "You should have discussed it with me first, seeing as both of us are now living in the same house. Seriously, are you trying to be rude or do you really have no common sense?"

A dark red blush trailed from Tsuna's cheeks and made its way rapidly to the other patches of skin. "W-What? By saying all this directly to my face, aren't you the one who is being rude? And why do I need permission to invite Kyoko-chan over? Isn't she your girlfriend?"

Giotto hesitated, opting to release Tsuna and take several steps back as he took in a sharp intake of breath. "What on earth gave you that ridiculous idea? I'm not at all and will never ever be related to that woman!"

Giotto gritted his teeth and stormed up the stairs to the bedroom allocated to him – all the time muttering something ambiguous. Meanwhile, Tsuna coughed a little, greedily gulping in air to make up for the loss. Then he reached up to clutch at the edge of the counter in order to stand and upon noticing the phone, he remembered that he had yet to call Enma.

"Hello, Tsuna?"

The brunet's face brightened considerably at the sound of his friend's voice and joyfully clutched at the receiver with both hands, seemingly having forgotten that he had just gotten into an argument with Giotto. "Enma! I feel like it's been ages since we last spoke."

"That's not true Tsuna. It has only been two hours."

Grin almost stretching from ear to ear, Tsuna twirled the telephone cord around his forefinger out of habit when he started to speak again. "Oh yeah. How was your day today?"

There was a pause at the other end of the line, accentuated by a soft sigh. "Not really as good as what I expected. I got into detention with Hibari tomorrow for being late."

Tsuna smiled at the redhead's brave use of the disciplinarian's name without any honorifics. That was yet another thing which set the two of them apart amongst many others. It was a given fact that Enma was bolder than him in terms of vocalizing his opinions, but more of a shy introvert when it came to making friends and going about other daily affairs.

"My day wasn't all that good either. Kyoko-chan practically forced me to invite her to dinner, but both she and Giotto ignored my presence all throughout the meal, and when she finally left, Giotto attacked me."

"Attacked?" Enma said the word slowly, as if tasting it at the tip of his tongue, then spitting it out in a hurry.

"Yeah, he kind of pinned me against the wall." Tsuna scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he pondered exactly why Enma would be so silent, until he understood the fact that the words he just chose could be interpreted in a whole different manner. "No, Enma. I don't mean it _that_way. Giotto was merely trying to tell me to keep away from Kyoko-chan."

Enma chuckled lightly and Tsuna knew almost at once that his best friend was most probably seated on his bed, frantically trying to dry his mop of damp red hair with one hand whist using the phone with the other. "While pinning you against the wall? That's something new."

Tsuna mused that he kind of enjoyed knowing that Enma seemed to have a change of character – becoming bolder and more lively when speaking on the phone – and only used this cheeky tone when conversing with him, but not with the others. But he instantly shook that thought from his head because it appeared to be way too gay. "Oh, listen to this, Enma! Giotto just told me that Kyoko-chan isn't his girlfriend!"

There was yet another pause at the other end of the line. The next time Enma spoke, his voice was muffled, masking a tinge of underlying amusement.

"Wasn't at least that much pretty obvious?"

Tsuna's jaw dropped wide open while he wondered internally if he actually had a sever lack of common sense, as Giotto loved to put it. "It was?"

"Of course. Which girlfriend would ever follow her boyfriend around so much, going to the point of almost threatening someone so as to ensure that her boyfriend remains untouched? Especially if his girlfriend is someone like her. She should have much more confidence in herself."

Tsuna stuck one hand out and started counting one by one. "So let's focus on this topic first. If it is true that Kyoko-chan isn't Giotto's girlfriend, then what other reasons are there for her to follow him around so much? Even his faithful fangirls do not go to that extent."

Enma gave a smile smile of encouragement despite knowing that it will not be seen through the phones and attempted to interject his words with encouragement and Grade As plans to carry out. "If you're so interested, why don't we meet up earlier before school starts tomorrow and start off by finding some of her friends first? They might be able to tell us something about this weird infatuation, or rather, obsession of hers."

"But who?"

Enma flipped open to the first page of his Biology textbook and noted the name and class of his lab partner. "Miura Haru, age sixteen, class 1-A. Well the two of them are pretty much always together, and from what I know, the only time they are separated is in the morning when Miura-san has to go and organize the books in the library before school starts. I think that time will be our only chance."

"I see," Tsuna muttered, trailing off in mid-sentence and re-constructed what he wanted to say in his head. "Then what do you say about meeting an hour earlier tomorrow? And also, we'll meet at the road junction to the left of my house from tomorrow onwards. What do you think?"

"Okay. However, if that's the case, I've got to go to bed now or I won't be able to wake up when my alarm rings tomorrow."

Tsuna was unable to fight off the grimace which stretched itself across his lips when he registered the loud shout echoing from Enma's end over to his eardrums as Aoba's shouting for everyone to 'get their asses off to bed and crash for the night already'. "Enma?"

Enma remained silent and Tsuna took that as his cue to speak. "Have a nice sleep."

"Okay, love you, Tsuna. Bye."

"Love you too, Enma."

xXxXx

**Author's notes:** I suppose that I have inflicted severe damage on Kyoko's characterization, making her into a stalker... She's scary. Okay, maybe it's just that I decided there's no one on Earth who can be as naïve and gullible as she is featured so I decided to give her a darker personality. I mean, a darker _inner_ personality. Of course, her outward appearance in school is more of the kind and sweet one, all stalking intents hidden perfectly – in other words, her original personality.

And of course, a few things to make known - because this is an AU, do not expect me to keep to all the ages of the people as depicted in the anime/manga. For one, Lampo is older than Giotto. People, just get over it. He's a rich boss after all. Being a boss at the age of fourteen isn't convincing. Oh, and please don't post any negative comments on the people I choose to include in this story (especially the girls), such as "Kyoko sucks" or "She is so useless". Personally, I do not like the girls, but I don't hate them either and I don't put them here for bashing purposes.


	5. of libraries and perverts

**Fai Senri **What are you saying? Of course Giotto and Tsuna will get on better terms! This is a G27 fanfic! Lawl XD **Kichou** Well, don't forget that Giotto has such a huge ego and he doesn't know that after he left the house, Kyoko spoke to Tsuna and practically forced the poor boy to invite her to dinner. Ignorance is bliss, and Giotto would obviously infer that Tsuna had somehow leaked to Kyoko the address of his new house intentionally, right? **Iuvenor**She is. Thanks for liking Giotto despite his... personality. Really, Giotto isn't the kindest man out there and there's no need to give him a godlike appearance with the sweetest personality to top it off! And, of course the next chapter is here! Enjoy it :D **PuroCieloFiamme **Yes, it will never be a 0027 fic. Or a 2700 fic. Frankly, I love Enma being together with Tsuna enough to read it, but not nearly enough to write it. Enma will get his own guy... or girl here, but just not Tsuna D; **ezcap1st **Yes, he's worse than Hibari. I totally agree with that. *stares at the typed out chapter on the computer*** **God, Giotto, why did you turn out this way? But heck, I like you either way so let's just keep you like that! **Rekishichizu **Poor Giotto. Looks like I can't ever get the beautiful numbers of their pairings in my word count. If Giotto had a number, it would surely be used for a lot of motivational purposes. Oh, what a fangirl I am. Thank you for reading through that long long author's note! Kyoko does give me the creeps, especially when I was typing the last chapter on a rainy night and there was the sound of pebbles hitting my bedroom window. Really creepy. Oh, and a small spoiler, Giotto being philophobic has absolutely nothing to do with Kyoko! **Rinatsu **Did I ever mention how surprised I was when I saw a new review and it was the correct guess right off the bat. I was totally wow-ing at the review. Kudos to you! **GhoulTears **Thanks for the support! Kyoko would probably appreciate me twisting her character into this... Thing. Well, it doesn't matter if she does or not but it would most certainly remain that way!

**of libraries and perverts**  
>家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN! © 天野明<p>

Enma stuffed his sweaty hands into his pockets and wriggle them around as the girl before his eyes pushed her glasses higher up and stared at them expectantly though the two round frame-less lenses perched on wither side of the bridge of her nose. "So now, tell me honestly, boys. What do you think of this awesome deal desu?"

Tsuna fidgeted nervously right next to him, mouth opening and closing abruptly as if he couldn't make up his mind whether to speak or remain silent. "But forcing us to join your newly created club just because we want to know more about Kyoko-chan is-"

"Is what Haru calls equal exchange!" Haru clapped both of her hands together, with stars literally sparking in her eyes. "You can't expect Haru to rat out secrets of her friend if she don't get anything beneficial in exchange! And look, this club will meet only once weekly, and you have the other days off! Plus, Haru will tell you everything you want to know about Kyoko-chan, if you promise not to do anything bad to her!"

Red splattered its way across Tsuna's face and he spluttered in embarrassment. "Why would we do anything bad to her?"

Haru blinked twice, her ponytail swishing from side to side as she shook her head vigorously while she placed both of her hands on Tsuna's shoulders and stared deeply into his caramel eyes. "Hahi? So you are not trying to ambush the lonely her on her way home after school and rape her?"

The books Tsuna was holding for her slipped from his grip and met his foot with a dull thud, eliciting a sharp cry of pain from the poor brunet who immediately clutched at his feet and glared darkly at the pile of encyclopedias. Enma, being the more composed one, decided to keep a safe distance of 2.567 meters from the female and speak directly from where he was. "We wouldn't. And Tsuna isn't interested in girls."

"Does that mean he is gay?" Haru chirped joyfully, one hand pushing her glasses up while the other grabbed Tsuna's chin and pulled him closer for closer inspection. "He sure has that type of look..."

Tsuna swiped her hand away and scrambled rubbed at his own chin, brows furrowed in annoyance and disappointment. "Why did you tell her such a precious secret of mine, Enma?"

"It's about your trustworthiness in order to strike this deal. Besides, she wouldn't rat you out. We've known each other since middle school and she likes this kind of relationships."

Haru grinned, ducking under the library counter to pull out a book and flipped to a random page before showing it to both boys. Tsuna took in the colored drawings on the page that was literally shoved into his face – a purple haired girl with a weird hairstyle was sitting on a kitchen counter with her legs spread wide open, and another girl resembling Kyoko squatting between the thighs, with her tongue frantically licking the former's folds.

"You are right about Haru liking yaoi before, Enma-kun. But times have changed and Haru isn't a fujoshi anymore. Now she supports yuri desu! Or more specifically, the relationship between Chrome-chan and Kyoko-chan!"

Tsuna faced away from her and towards the white walls, burying his face within his hands in order to try and clear the mental image out of his mind. "I don't get how on Earth you are able to draw anything regarding two of your friends in such a manner!"

"Hahi? What do you mean?" Haru smiled, tilting her head cutely to her side, both eyes wide open in curiosity, just like she really had no idea what the brunet meant. "All it needs is just a little imagination! Even you can do it, Tsuna-kun! Do you want to try? Maybe... by drawing yourself in a intimate relationship with Enma-kun? Haru can teach you all about manga and their styles~!"

Tsuna almost choked on his own spit.

"Haru, stop giving him weird ideas. Instead, please elaborate on what your club does. We have to know the basics if we are going to join."

"Enma-kun! Has Haru ever told you how much she loves you?" Haru squealed, wrapping her arms around the redhead. Enma's face instantly turned seven different shades of red, grabbing at the female's hands in order to peel her off his body. Understanding the meanings behind his weak struggles, she instantly skipped backwards and hopped up onto the library counter.

"It's Namimori's school help club desu! Haven't you heard of something like this or read about it in manga? It's so popular right now! Students make requests and we help them out, with every single thing they want us to do – from simple love confessions to passionate sex!"

Tsuna fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. "Why has everything you say and do have to do with _that,_ Miura-san?"

Haru poked Tsuna's nose with her forefinger, prodding it. "No! Haru does many other things which have nothing to do with sex, just like homework. And don't call me Miura-san! Haru is Haru!"

Enma sighed in exasperation. The way Tsuna and Haru were approaching the issue didn't help to solve it in the slightest. "That doesn't sound like we'll have a lot of free time at all. But okay, we'll try it out for the time being and see if we are suited for it. But firstly, is this club even official?"

Haru clapped both of her hands below, eyes gleaming under the severity of the fluorescent lights. "Of course! Haru managed to round up a few other members. So, including both of you and Haru, there's five people, which just meets the basic requirements for the creation of a club desu! Superb, isn't it?"

Tsuna slumped against the peach colored walls, like he was already past trying to haggle his way out of this situation and decided to suck it up and deal with the whole thing instead. "Okay, so we've came to a compromise. When will you tell us the knowledge we want to know?"

"You mean about Kyoko-chan's relationship with Giotto-senpai?" Haru asked inquisitively, a finger pressed against the corner of her lips in obvious curiosity before she burst out laughing in little peals of giggles – doubling over and smacking the floor with her fist. "Hahi? And Haru thought that it would be _so _obvious by now desu!"

"What do you mean?"

Haru straightened up, beaming at the frown the duo wore on their faces. "Kyoko-chan is a stalker!"

xXxXx

**Author's notes: **And CUT! This is it for the next chapter! Sorry for the absolutely short chapter. Don't be shocked, don't be mad, and allow me to explain first. I'm stuck in the middle of a holiday trip and busy typing between breaks. And I suppose most of you know how much _free time_ you will get when your mother drags you all around on shopping sprees? So for almost the entire week and I've only got this bit done. Really pathetic, I know.

Now, let me get back to the hotel, plug this damn laptop in to charge as I continue typing. But that will be a long, long time later (stares at the circled areas on mom's map), so I've decided to post whatever I have on FF first. To be frank, Haru scares me and I don't think I'll ever be able to come up with a normal personality for any of the KHR's girls. I tend to over-infer their original personalities and that always results in a weird twist – Kyoko is a stalker and Haru is a pervert!

I apologize for making anyone go through this chapter in case you hate Yuri [Girl/Girl relationships]. I don't like it too, but please blame my sleep-deprived brain if you insist on procrastinating against this. The good news is that everything between Chrome and Kyoko is purely in Haru's head and I don't intend to make it a fixed part of this FF. At all.

Staring at my pairing plans for this again makes me giggle, yet realize that yes, almost everyone is gay. Namimori is filled with homo-teens! (Desperately tries to straighten some of the people's preferences)... Or do some of you not mind the 'almost every guy is gay' aspect?


	6. of anagrams and detention

**Delighten** Aw that's a good idea, but Giotto doesn't think much of Tsuna either way at the moment yet. Maybe I'll add that in in the later chapters XD Gokudera and Yamamoto would be appearing in this chapter! **orangeer **Thank you. It means a lot to me since this is a new style of writing which I adopted a little while ago. All bow down to unpredictable-ness~ Let's hope that you will continue to find this fanfic unpredictable and interesting .o.** PuroCieloFiamme** Lussuria? No he wouldn't be the one who would cause the gay effect. Definitely! And of course there would be some exceptions. I can't imagine Ryohei as a gay. And I'm still unsure if I want Enma to be gay, but most of the characters would be.** InfiniteWhiplash** I don't hate Nana, but I don't think much of her at the same time. I agree that there should be a limit to how ignorant she can be but if she weren't that ignorant, the manga wouldn't have proceeded with all the arcs smoothly. And it doesn't help that I think her ignorance is a façade. I seem to think a lot into the characterization of characters OTL **WinterGuardianAngel24** Oops I wonder what I was thinking when I was categorizing Haru. I must have been watching the episode with all her weird-ass cosplays D| **Rinatsu** My favorite female character is Yuni (Don't ask me why ;w;) And as usual, I am neutral it comes to Yuri, but Yaoi. YAOI! 3 **GhoulTears** Shh, not gonna tell~ Let it remain as a secret until it is time to reveal it. KichouI finally... updated :I Sorry for the long, long wait. ezcap1st Haru doesn't scare me. At least, she isn't scary in my head -shot- But really, Haru is a pervert in all categories - in Hentai, Yaoi and Yuri. **g27 is love** It's updated. Finally. **XxShiroumiArisaxX** Haha, sorry it took so long for the next chapter to make its appearance QAQ **Lireach** Aw... Thanks? XD **Butterfree **Wow, thanks for all the reviews. ILY- **Rekishichizu** Everyone is so curious about Chrome... But you are only half-correct! The other half will... answer itself soon. Chome would appear soon~ **Selfcreated Character** They would appear. And if it's about Mammon, he appeared already. He's the History teacher but I introduced him under the name Viper. And nope, not all the Arcobaleno are teachers.** MangaFreak15** o.O Everyone says so... **kisa** Pfft. Even in the manga, was his life ever not f-ed up? **Dame-Rae** This. This made me so guilty. -le hugs- Sorry for the long wait. Thank you for waiting! **That's Riku** Well then, I finally updated :D** Fallen Angel Of The Forgotten** Tsuna will always be placed at a disadvantage and bullied no matter where he goes. Poor him. It gets better.

**Of anagrams and detention  
><strong>家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN! © 天野明

"Anagrams? What exactly do you mean by that desu, Gokudera-kun?"

The silver haired teenager propped his face against the palm of his hand. Tsuna was currently seated at the back of Classroom 2-A, which was the homeroom class for Gokudera Hayato and Miura Haru. The brunet didn't want to admit it, but it was a fact that these two were one of the few brightest students in their cohort and it was no surprise that both of them would be in the top class.

On the contrary, the person sitting right across of him – Yamamoto Takeshi – was from 2-C, which was the second last class. Apparently, there was a senior, Sasagawa Ryohei, who wasn't able to attend the session today, and Tsuna found that name strangely familiar.

"Exactly what it means, you stupid woman. The name 'Chrome Dokuro' is an anagram of the name of her half-brother, Rokudo Mukuro'," Gokudera muttered, his brows creased into an annoyed glare as he scribbled onto a piece of scrap paper. "I thought that much was obvious. Need I explain anymore?"

Haru blinked, pushing up her glasses as she plopped back down onto the seat and snatched the paper over to view the links between the two names. Arrows were pointing to form connections between each word of their names and Haru had a rough idea of what Gokudera meant within seconds. Then she snapped her head back up, staring right into his eyes before she opened her mouth to say something stupid.

"Don't tell me that you are actually a closet Sherlockian, Gokudera-kun?"

Gokudera flared up, anger issues getting in the way of him forming coherent thoughts and logical reasoning once again. "What the fuck? How the hell did you come to that fucking conclusion that I'm one of those effing detective-obsessed freaks who bury their noses in silly detective novels all day long. And, what the hell do you mean by 'Closet'? You are the one who is a 'closet', pervert!"

"Not true, Gokudera-kun. I'm not a closet pervert because I don't device ways to hide my perverseness. So, I'm what others normally call an Open Pervert. You, on the other hand, try to dress in those rags so people wouldn't consider you as a nerd, you rebellious hormone-raging protozoic octopus!"

"Fucking useless woman." "Jerk."

"Baby." "Asshole."

Tsuna unleashed a long mental sigh at the bickering between the two. He wasn't curious as to how it would turn out because it had been like that for the past two hours, straight. It would die down for a moment, and they would go though some normal club activity-ish discussion, then it would flare up again for absolutely no reason at all. Repetitively.

Well, at least the starting first thirty minutes of this school-help club meeting was pretty much normal. Or as normal as Tsuna thought it could be.

Haru was being the pervert which she always was – aura and all – while they had some form of self-introduction thing going on. But it wasn't exactly one if you considered that the only thing which they exchanged were their names and which class they were in.

Except for Haru's, since the girl was babbling.

And thanks to that, Tsuna had a rough idea about what everyone was to each other. For starters, Gokudera and Haru were childhood rivals, all the way up from pre-school - just like him and Enma, only that he and the redhead had a much, muchfriendlier relationship. Then Enma was in the same class with Haru at the last year of Elementary School and they all met Yamamoto on the first day in Middle School.

In other words, Tsuna had been the only one left out of all this friendship circle. How great.

"So what you are saying is this girl called Chrome has specially changed her name and entered this school," Enma reiterated, successfully dissipating the tense atmosphere in the clubroom and breaking up the silly argument between Gokudera and Haru. "But why would she do such a thing?"

"Chrome-chan didn't explain about that in her request, but I'm sure it has something to do with her brother! I heard that Rokudo-san was expelled right on the second day of school. I'm sure that Chrome-chan is here to exact revenge on the school!"

Tsuna didn't bother to inform Haru about how silly her assumption was. There was no way that anyone would think of doing something on such a big-scale, especially if it involved the principal. And besides, the one who expelled Chrome's brother was most likely either Hibari-san or Alaude-san and plotting against those two will never yield good results.

"My my, as usual you seem to be equipped with a rather powerful imagination, Haru!"

"Hahi? Is that a compliment, Yamamoto-kun? Imagination is needed in my line of work so I can fulfill all of my fantasies, so Haru is extremely pleased to hear you say that!"

"Stupid woman. Look, even that idiotic Tenth would understand that it isn't a compliment, but I guess that's why you thought it was. You are nothing but a stupid woman after all."

Tenth... Tsuna blinked at the title, double checking to make sure that Gokudera was staring - more like glaring - right at him. "Why 'Tenth'?"

Is it because he'll be the tenth person to be killed? Or the tenth person in some silly little game which he was supposed to play in? Or was it some ranking system which he doesn't know about? But there's only five people in this room so it was impossible for him to be ranked so far behind, unless...

"What do you think of it, Tsuna-kun?"

There. It happened again! Why did he always have to tune out at the important moments? "Yes, Haru? I didn't quite hear you earlier so if you don't mind, can you please repeat what you said again?"

"My theory. The one whereby Chrome-chan turns into a superhero and destroys the school by firing laser beams from her nipples!"

The reaction from the club members were varied. Tsuna choked on his own spit, Enma leapt to his feet, Yamamoto started laughing and Gokudera shouted something which resembled 'You stupid perverse creature' in a strangely hoarse voice.

"I-I think that it's ridiculous, Haru. Besides there wouldn't be a superhero who would attack the school. In the first place the school is a place for students to learn and not to bear grudges so- Ouch!"

The back of the Haru's clipboard connected with the Tsuna's forehead in one swift movement, making the brunet yelp in a strangled fashion and collapse unceremoniously onto the ground, his back crashing onto the ground. The chair which he had been sitting on clattered noisily onto the ground. Head whirling, Tsuna sat up, rubbing at the sore parts of his body.

"You know," Gokudera continued, his pose still being the one which he gotten into while throwing the clipboard. "Those pretty little innocent ideals which you have really do piss me off. What do you mean that the school is a place for people to learn? That's just a useless fucking notion which the teachers came up with so students would be encouraged to learn. That's why you really are the Tenth person whom I can't stand. Face the facts, we wouldn't even be able to use half of what we learn in school out in real life!"

S-So that was what the title of Tenth meant? The Tenth person which Gokudera-kun wouldn't be able to acknowledge? Tsuna opened his mouth to express his shock in another one of his weird mannerisms, but Yamamoto managed to stop him by interrupting with a chuckle.

"Well that's not totally true. For instance, I'll be able to use Physics theories to help myself score home-runs!"

"Don't fucking call me by my first name, baseball nut!" Gokudera hollered, slapping Yamamoto's hand away before the former's palm did even so much as touch his shoulder. "And besides, it's not like you use Physics theories to score home-runs either. Everything about you boils down to instincts after all."

Tsuna let out a relieved sigh when he noticed that Gokudera's attention was moved away from him to Yamamoto. He was never good with such assertive people. Frankly speaking, they scare him and the way which they usually treat him (such as how Gokudera seemed to be instinctively verbally attacking him with any chance), terrifies the crap out of him.

"Haha, you really do know me well, Hayato!"

"Don't get so full of yourself! And what did I just say about you calling me by my first name? Were you even listening to what I said, you-"

Well, on one hand Tsuna was glad that Gokudera-kun was no longer paying much attention to him, but he obviously didn't want to participate in yet another argument - especially when it involved two males and seemed as if it would break out into another fight no less.

"Heh, doesn't it seem like the two of them are in a relationship, Tsuna-kun, Enma-kun? Just look at them bickering like an old married couple," Haru squealed, her arms flailing about on either side of her body.

"What the fuck are you saying again, you stupid woman? Don't pair me together with such a brainless idiot!"

Gokudera bristled at the comment and even Yamamoto appeared to be slightly peeved though he skillfully covered it up with another good-natured chuckle. "Really, if anyone of us resembles a couple, it would be Gokudera and you, Haru. The two of you really have a good relationship."  
>"Hahi? Haru is wondering if Yamamoto-kun has gone blind. Yaoi wins over Hetero relationships any day desu!"<p>

Enma stood up, smoothing the creases from his jacket and casting a sidelong glance at the clock mounted on the classroom wall. "I thought that you were long past supporting relationships between males, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyway, I'll have to take my leave here. I have a detention session with Hibari."

Tsuna flinched. He had almost forgotten about the fact that Enma was scheduled for a session with the fearsome Hibari-san. Did that mean that they wouldn't be able to return home together today? Or should he wait for Enma at the school gate?

"Hahi? As the Club President I shouldn't allow you to leave halfway through the meeting, especially since it is our first session, but when you mention Hibari Kyoya... He's so dangerous desu! Be careful Enma-kun, if you are bitten to death, Tsuna-kun will lose the sole place where he can release his sexual frustrations!"

A dark shadow passed over Enma features as he bent his head to stare at the ground, bangs shielding his eyes, before looking back up to meet Haru's grinning face. "I'll apologize in advance for saying something this rude, but won't you keep your imaginations to yourself, Haru. It's not really necessary for you to vocalize them and to be frank, it's annoying."

HIIIEEE! This was probably the first time which Tsuna had ever witnessed Enma being that angry, but then again, with the sudden inclusion of Haru and the others, could Tsuna still say that he actually understood Enma?

Of course, they were still best friends who grew up and have been constantly bullied together, but Enma must have met many different people too during the last two years of Elementary school when they were placed in different classes.

"There there, this is still our first meeting so I think everyone should relax and not argue, right? Besides you should know of Haru's personality by now, Enma. It isn't something which you should get furious over!"

"I'm not... angry," Enma clarified, his tone going back to the original soft-spoken and cautious one, just as if his bold side was like a cover which had been peeled off. "Sorry. I should take my leave now. When's the next meeting session?"

Haru stood up, hands digging through her school bag until she pulled out a pink notebook of which the cover page was decorated with hearts and rainbows.

"Ah I think this is the end of today's session since Yamamoto-kun has to go to his baseball training and Enma-kun has to leave too. But before any of you do so, please do write your mobile phone number and email addresses in this notebook. I'll email you guys the additional details of the request which Chrome-chan made and I'll text all of you the date for the next club meeting desu!"

The notebook was then passed around the table once, starting from Enma - who hastily left after he jotted down what was necessary - and ended with Gokudera before Haru happily snatched the notebook back from the silver haired teenager and bid everyone goodbye and good luck for the rest of the day.

xXxXx

It was raining. G and Giotto were in the Student Council room alone again for the second time that week. Alaude was missing, as usual, busy doing what he thought was genuinely worth his time while G was immersed in doing his paperwork.

Giotto laid stretched out on the couch and staring at the blue painted ceiling. He wasn't a part of the Student Council yet he was constantly attended their meetings and hung out in the Student Council room. There was no particular reason as to why he would do so, except the fact that the core members of said club consisted of many of his close friends.

"Really, G, you seem to be spending all day on those crap papers. Haven't you ever thought of hiring a robot to solve such meager stuff for you? And do you even have enough time to finish all your homework?"

"Unfortunately there's no such robot existing at the moment yet, and paperwork isn't meager. It's something which people took the time and effort to type so that I would know of their arrangements. It's something which people put a lot of thought in." G pushed the glasses slipping down the bridge of his nose right back up and tsk-ed at Giotto's insensitivity.

"And to answer your second question, Giotto, of course I do. No matter how much paperwork I have, I always make it a point to stop three minutes and twenty-five seconds before nine so I would have enough time to finish all my assignments. On a side note, I sleep at ten every night without fail."

Giotto rubbed his temples. For the first time in a long while, he was feeling annoyed from speaking to G. He had almost missed how the other would always remain firm about his viewpoint and bash down others.

"And not a second later either, right? I totally understand what you mean so you may stop with the numbers already. They make me dizzy. Though it wouldn't be like you if there was a day when you stop counting everything right down to the dot."

Silence reigned in the room for a few more seconds until Giotto swung his feet down from the coffee table and pulled himself into a sitting position. "Say, where's Alaude? Since you seem to be busy I might as well go bother him. Or is he in another sparring session with Hibari Kyouya?"

"They are not. Well they were supposed to after school today but Alaude mentioned that he had more important things to do and is currently patrolling Namimori. Kusakabe is surveying the area near the school itself. Hibari is maintaining discipline in school as usual."

"Patrolling? That doesn't sound like something Alaude would waste his afternoon over. Could it be that there's something interesting going on?"

G pursed his lips, staring at Giotto as if he was mentally calculating if it was worth it for him to tell the other about the predicament which they were currently trapped in. Coming to a conclusion, G drummed his fingers against the table while scanning through the next page of the paperwork he was in charge of, seemingly undeterred even when he was supposed to help out with Alaude's share of work as well.

"It depends on your definition of interesting. According to the limited information which I have access to, there have been two disappearances from our school. Their parents have filed a report with the police a couple of weeks ago about them going missing while on the way home so as of this morning, Alaude and Hibari have been searching for them."

G took Giotto's silence as a cue for him to continue speaking.

"It's suspected to be a kidnapping incident, though neither are from highly respectable households. And the strange thing is that one of them were on the phone when the possible kidnapping incident took place, but the person on the other end of the line testified that there were no screams, albeit for help. It's as if the two students just disappeared."

"Why are you guys investigating something which is supposed to be done by the police, especially if it's a few weeks old? All the leads would have long since be gone."

"That is the part which is difficult to explain since the girl who has gone missing has been sighted in school itself, but no one has testified to seeing her leaving the school. Alaude thinks that this might be another one of the similar kidnapping incidents so we are investigating them all."  
>Giotto decided not to probe further into the issue anymore.<p>

xXxXx

"You're early for once, Kozato Enma."

These were the first words which Enma heard when he entered the Reception room. Hibari was seated on the swivel chair at the far end of the room, spinning around until his steel gray eyes met Enma's dull vermilion ones.

"I was afraid of being late again. My brother has a curfew for me from tomorrow onwards and I don't think I can deal with anymore detention sessions when it's the midterms in a week's time."

Hibari pushed himself up from his seat and headed over to the lounge area at the corner of the room. His movements were extremely fluid and none of the actions were superfluous - befitting of his title as the Head of the Disciplinary Committee.  
>On the other hand, Enma clambered over to join Hibari after the latter beckoned him over, almost tripping over his untied shoelaces twice before he reached his destination.<p>

"I have a few questions that I would like you to answer, Kozato Enma."

The redhead nodded grimly, trying his best to hold back his urge to tell the other that although his phrasing of words might be considered polite, there was no doubt that it was a threat in disguise. It literally sounded to Enma that he should answer whatever questions, or risk getting bitten to death.

"First question. Why were you late this morning?"

"I was waiting for Tsuna. Sasagawa Kyoko-san was speaking to him."

Hibari sat down on the couch, then gestured for Enma to take a seat right opposite him. He would never admit this aloud, but he was rather relaxed right now. The silence that was shrouding the redhead gave him a type of typical calmness which being in crowds often took away from him. He enjoyed the company, but only if it were to stay like this.

"But that herbivore was in school earlier than you. How do you explain that?"

"There must have been a shortcut which they found."

Kozato Enma was being truthful and straightforward - blunt even. He didn't try to lie or to feign ignorance. He simply stated what he thought was the truth, even if it was a exceedingly straightforward fact.

"Do you know of where that certain shortcut is then?"

"Unfortunately, no. But I can ask Tsuna if you want me to."

"There's no need to, Kozato Enma. I'll figure it out on my own. You may leave now."

Enma stood up, bowing a little and stared down at his feet as he spoke. He was still feeling a little anxious about looking right into Hibari's eyes though he seemed to have no trouble with that yesterday. Perhaps it was due to the location change? Or the situation?

Hibari was on his way back to his swivel chair when Enma finally mustered up enough courage to ask the question which has been weighing rather heavily on his mind since this mock-detention session started. "This wasn't much of a detention session. Were you simply trying to ask me questions?"

"You realized." Hibari's voice was rather monotonous, yet holding with it a slight edge of amusement - like he didn't expect Enma to be able to guess at his true intentions.

Not that it would make a difference whether he did not didn't, Enma reckoned. He would have answered the questions either way. The redhead understood that he wasn't a person who dealt with situations properly under pressure. He always chose the easy way out.

"Why?"

"I was trying to ascertain whether it was true if you, Sawada Tsunayoshi and Sasagawa Kyoko were crowding that morning. It's part of my job to find out who was the last person to see her."

Enma repeated the last five words slowly, as if determining the amount of truth behind each individual word. He understood the implications behind those words when they were strung together.

"Sasagawa Kyoko is the third person who has gone missing in this month."

xXxXx

**Author's note**: Okay guys, I am back! I apologize for this long gruelling six months of no updates that I have put you guys through but it's been about five months since I'm on here again so everything seems strangely foreign.

Really, I wonder if anyone is still keeping track of this fanfiction, I certainly hope that everyone still is. I shan't go around saying that this would be updated frequently (weekly) since I'm still busy with a lot of in real life stuff, but you'll certainly be able to see at least one update in a month. Or two.

I would like to mention that although this story has taken a much deeper turn (missing people incidents and all) and probably wasn't what you readers might have been expecting, I do not intend to go all detective into this plot and turn it into a crime/mystery genre. It's not supposed to be that way. I'm just using it to tie a couple of relationships and incidents in this fic.

Also I should mention that I'm frantically searching for a beta. Whoever is interested in helping, please do contact me!

Thank you for reading and please review.**  
><strong>


	7. of siblings and kidnappers

**Lexie-chan94**So sorry for the long wait, it's updated! **xChaos RebornX **Thanks for the reminder about the mobile phone thing, it would be addressed in this chapter. I guess it might be a little too cliché, but please look forward to it! **Butterfree** Aw, your review made me smile. I'm overjoyed that you like the direction which this story is going, since I certainly do not want to write a story whereby there's only romance involved XD **pokermaniac039** Be glad, the next update is finally here! **Rekishichizu **Depending on how you see this, Kyoko might be involved (albeit as a victim this time round). Apart from her dark personality, Kyoko is still basically a girl so it's necessary to keep some of her feminine traits which she had before she went all stalker-ish over Giotto ^w^ **WhiteAngel128** Thank you so, so much for finding this story interesting. I was having my doubts about moving the story in this direction! Sorry for the late reply since I'm not all that active on here this year. Please tell me that you are still interested in being my beta! **KittenKita ***Beep*** **More has just arrived! **Kichou **Swallow that pounding curiousity, and read on to know who's going to go missing next~ **yunmoon **I can't read that... but I have a rough understanding of what you're saying (thanks to google translations), so in any case, thanks. I hope that you'll enjoy this new chapter as well. **Yuukilover** Sorry that I took so long to update. Scroll down to read the new chapter! Enjoy it! **Adellth **Up... grade? OuO" **xryuchan27 **I certainly would continue writing it since it's fun to write. Please do continue reading it as well. **Narutopokefan **Everyone seems curious about the disappearance, but I wouldn't drop hints about it or else it wouldn't be interesting, right? XD Please do continue reading. **KitsuneDango** Pfft, thanks for thinking it's good. Now you can finally read more -shot- **ezcap1st **Who was rooting for Kyoko to be kidnapped? Raise up your hand! w I guess I really do take the bad sides of their personalities to the extreme, but hey, that's what makes them charming~ -stoned to death-

**Of siblings and kidnappers**  
>家庭教師ヒットマンREBORN! © 天野明<p>

"Mukuro-sama."

There was a purple haired girl standing at the corridor. Her hair was styled in a unique way which would never be a successful part of the fashion trend amongst teenagers. She was dressed in the standard dark blue Namimori school uniform and was nervously licking her lips as she raised her hand to knock on the door once again.

She was currently staring into a room which was rather empty, save for the necessary bed, closet and a mirror. The wall plaster was cracked and chipping off in various areas, pails were placed around the room to collect the water dripping from the leaking rood, and the entire room itself gave off a feeling that the tenant did not really care about his or her level of comfort.

Across the room, there was a sudden slight movement on the bed. Navy blue hair peeked up from the covers before the white blanket was hastily kicked off the bed and the male under it sat up straight on the bed and yawned. "Nagi? You're home early today."

Nagi – or rather, Chrome Dokuro, smiled.

Well, it wasn't really a smile – if you consider the fact that only the tips of her lips twitched in a small upward movement. "It's already seven in the evening, Mukuro-sama. It's time for dinner."

Rokudo Mukuro rubbed his eyes as he shuffled towards the bathroom.

Chrome nodded. Her gaze followed him as he proceeded to the bathroom, her attention focused on the long scar across her brother's back.

The reason which that scar came about was a part of their family history. It happened on her eighth birthday. Their entire family had been out to buy a cake for her after she spent a whole hour demanding for one. On the way to the confectionery, the car in front of them made a sudden stop and resulted in a massive car accident.

Mukuro shielded her from shards of the windscreen glass, resulting in the large scar spanning the length of his back. Even so, he didn't manage to escape totally unscathed. Something small and sharp pierced her right eye, and doctors in the hospital decided that it was for the best if the entire eye were to be removed.

Ever since then, Chrome had always been wearing an eye-patch over her right eye.

"Where are you working at tonight, Mukuro-sama? Esquire?"

Esquire is the name of the bar where Mukuro normally worked at – the bar where he was working part-time as a bartender at.

"Not tonight, I have to drop by the Gesso mansion since Byakuran asked me to go over tonight."

Byakuran. Chrome inevitably shuddered at the sound of that name. She had seen that man for the first time earlier this year and from the mere five minutes of their brief meeting, she had manage to convince herself that she hated him.

Her first impression of Byakuran was that he was this sly and witty man who was always smiling, but it felt to her like he was merely putting on random masks to lure his preys in.

Not to mention that disturbing and exceedingly odd purple birthmark or tattoo-like thing under his left eye...

"Say Nagi, can you help me to take out the box of condoms from the bottom drawer? That's my favorite brand and I have a feeling that Byakuran would pester me for at least three rounds of sex tonight." Mukuro called over his shoulder while struggling to put on a pair of colored contacts.

Chrome silently retrieved the box and handed it over to her brother. "When would you stop wearing those contacts, Mukuro-sama?"

About the same time when Chrome started wearing her eye-patch, her elder brother also started wearing a red right colored contact lenses. He said that it was because he wanted to be similar to his darling sister, but Chrome knew better.

However, she didn't say anything. She couldn't say anything.

It was basically her fault that her brother had to do such humiliating things. If it wasn't for her shy personality and slow-witted movements, she wouldn't have been the source of bullying, then Mukuro wouldn't be expelled.

With a graduation certificate from High School, it would be so much more easy for him to find a good-paying job.

"Maybe when you stop calling me 'Mukuro-sama'? I don't even remember when you started to call me that. You used to be so cute, calling me 'Onii-chan' all the time~"

"I never did such a thing, Mukuro-sama."

Although Chrome may deny it, she knew that such a time had indeed existed. However, it was a long time ago, before their parents were gone from this world. It was back in those long distant happy times which were now barely still part of her memories.

All of those her habits from those days have disappeared when her brother left the house with her after he found out that the aunt who took them in was abusive to her. After leaving home, they spent a rather long period conning people of their money.

Each deed had an elaborate plan to back it up, and then they only stopped doing such things after they came by and settled in Namimori. The habit of calling Mukuro as Mukuro-sama must have stuck from then on.

Unfortunately, she was targeted by the bullies in the area and Mukuro saved her. It was his job as her brother, but the bullies were severely injured and Mukuro was expelled as a result. His reply to her apology was that he wouldn't be able to get a proper education and job after all.

Mukuro became an underage bartender – which was another illegal job which he participated in – and also an ideal partner for several men.

"Would you be eating dinner, Mukuro-sama? I only have one more dish to prepare before I'm done..."

It was the least which she could do now. Now – before she found out the identity of the delinquents who bullied her that day and return the favor, and of course, she also had to teach the unreasonable people who expelled her brother a lesson. An unforgettable lesson.

"Sorry Nagi, but I'll be eating at Byakuran's. He's throwing a banquet tonight and don't you think it's a waste if I don't eat my fill?"

"Of course, Mukuro-sama. I'll prepare breakfast before I leave for school. You'll only have to heat it up before consumption, as usual."

xXxXx

Tsuna flipped the device in his hand open, closed it, then opened it once more. He couldn't get enough of the faint sound of a bell chiming whenever he opened the thing although the dim light given off by the screen made his eyes uncomfortable. How did this thing produce such a melody?

Said 'thing' was orange in color, slim, cold, and not very heavy. Yet it felt terribly weird in his hands. Not to mention that the numerous buttons confused him to no end.

"Uh, Giotto? I'm sorry to ask this though you spent so much time and effort trying to teach me since yesterday... but how do you use this? And what do most people use this for?"

The blond, who was currently stretched out on the couch, sighed. He had just gave the former a lesson on how to use his recently acquired mobile phone but he should have known that the other didn't do well in absorbing large amounts of information at one go.

"We'll touch on the functions later. With regards to the personal usage of this mobile phone, what other doubts do you have? Or rather, from where do you want me to explain again?"

"Uh, right from the... start?"

Giotto's brow furrowed in a mixture of irritation and anger while he glowered at the other for a moment before sighing and snatching the phone away from the other. "Say, Tsunayoshi, which of these buttons do you remember the function of?"

Tsuna squinted at the numerous buttons and raised his index finger to shakily point at the green one, followed by the red one, and then at the button which led to the menu screen. Those were the only three buttons which Tsuna had a clear idea of what their functions were since these three were the ones which Giotto first taught him about. The bruner had a short attention span – the things which he normally remembered were the ones which were said within the first five minutes of any lesson.

"You are really slow when it comes to these things such as technology and studies. I wonder how you even managed to get into Namimori High, Tsunayoshi. I'm not trying to be mean by stating the facts, but Namimori High is one of the better schools into this region and you seem to have been failing all the tests."

Tsuna grumbled under his breath, and was quick to defend himself.

"That's because Reborn used to be my tuition teacher when I was in middle school and his teaching methods are exceedingly spartan. He made me study and analyze each and every step in mathematics until the every word in the problem sum is etched in my brain!"

Giotto scoffed, chuckling at the usual exaggerated expressions and actions which Tsuna was making. "Etched? I don't think so, considering that you didn't manage to pass a single math test after that ever again."

"Ever again?" Tsuna quoted, a small pout upon his lips. "That's a little too mean, Giotto! They say that humans improve by the second. Perhaps by the next time I see you, I might have evolved from-"

"From inside of an egg to becoming a worm?"

"That's considered hatching! Do you seriously think that I'm that stupid?"

The sound of the telephone ringing broke the comfortable atmosphere in the room and the two of them fell silent immediately. Tsuna hopped off the couch and grabbed the phone, knowing that the only person who would call would probably be his mother and Iemitsu.

"Hello, Sawada residence. May I know who is the one on the other end of the line?"

Tsuna spoke slowly, making sure that he didn't mess up the lines. He had embarrassed himself in front of Giotto enough for a day's worth.

"I'm sure you do recognize my voice, Tsuna-kun."

Enma paused for a moment. There was the sound of a liquid being sucked up a straw and one of someone swallowing "Do you think that I was being a little too mean today? I wasn't considering about yelling at Haru when I did it. I mean, she has already done that so many times and I should have gotten immune to it, but Aoba did said something about that the other day too so I kind of..."

Tsuna leaned against the counter and shot an apologetic smile at Giotto. The blond nodded upon receiving the smile to show that he understood and respected Tsuna's wish for privacy and went up to his room.

"Look Enma, it wasn't your fault. If I were you I would have done the same thing - or rather, I was about to do the same thing myself if she brought the issue up another notch. Also, I'm sure Haru doesn't mind. She probably faced many of such situations since she brings up that topic too easily and too frequently."

There was a brief silence at Enma's end of the line before a brief chuckle resounded. It was strange to hear Enma's laughter. It felt like a long time had passed since he last heard it. "You just called her 'Haru', Tsuna-kun. Even though you were so against calling her that before."

Pink dusted Tsuna's cheeks when Enma blatantly pointed out the fact which he himself didn't even catch on. He knew that the redhead was one who observed silently, but he didn't think that Enma had became a person who wasn't shy to point out such embarrassing things any longer. "I-I couldn't help it! She just goes about doing what she wants all the time and along the way I just felt that it would be okay if I just called her by her given name directly. Besides, the two of us are of the same age and are both joined the same club. But there's really nothing between the two of us at all!"

"I believe you, Tsuna-kun."

It was a simple sentence. It was a simple sentence which held the hidden meaning of true trust between two best friends.

Tsuna smiled.

Over at Enma's end of the line, there was the sound of a door swinging open then slamming shut, accompanied by a loud shout of 'Time to bomb your beds with your dead tired bodies, little babies' by Aoba, no doubt. After all there was only one single person who would yell at that volume so late at night.

Julie's complaints were voiced in a long string of whines that made absolutely no sense to Tsuna, before he winced in pain and stormed upstairs.

"It's time for me to sleep or I'll have to risk having the phone line cut or my mobile confiscated or both, Tsuna-kun. Good night."

The brunette sighed, rubbing his eyes. There was something strange about today. It was normal for him to be tired after nine, but it was nearly eleven and Tsuna still felt as if he was wide awake. Maybe – just maybe he was too interested in getting to know how to use his first mobile? Or the adrenaline rush from his chat with Giotto earlier hadn't fully faded away yet?

"But before that, I remembered that there's something I have to ask you, Tsuna-kun. It has to do with what Hibari asked me when I went to detention today. Although he did mention that I didn't have to question you about it but I'm curious as well, so tell me Tsuna, from where did you and Sasagawa Kyoko enter the school on that day when she met you outside your house? Or rather, did she really enter the school?"

Tsuna blinked at Enma's tone. It was unlike anything he heard the redhead use before. Normally Enma would be speaking in a soft voice that featured his lack of confidence in himself but now the tone was brusque and commanding. Perhaps it was because Enma was rushing to go to bed, or maybe it was Tsuna's misjudgment since he was so tired already.

"Enma, why-?"

"According to Hibari, Sasagawa Kyoko has gone missing that same day. Apparently none of her friends saw her in school either, so if you really entered the school together with her, you would be the last person to witness her and she must have gone missing somewhere in the school compound."

xXxXx

At the same time, in a cafe on the opposite side of town, a girl was cleaning the tables and making preparations to close up the store. The last customer – a young girl with a blond bodyguard waiting for her outside the store – left a couple of minutes ago in a limousine.

How nice, I-pin contemplated as she scrubbed harder at the tables. She had always thought that it would be great if it was possible for her to be slightly richer. Not that she was unhappy with her current life, but she seeked change.

"I-pin, I've mentioned this several times already but have you ordered the coffee beans needed for tomorrow? You should know that the discount would gather many more customers than usual so we need a larger order. Also we are putting some of your cakes up for sale too so make sure to prepare them well. We need a good first impression for our new products."

The girl named I-pin twisted her long black hair into a loose bun at the back of her head and clipped it in place as she sighed. It was just like her brother to be so meticulous and conscientious. Those two aspects were what made her very different from Fon. I-pin never loved to plan.

"I did, brother. They promised that they would definitely deliver it over tomorrow morning before we start the day!"

Fon peeked out from the kitchen area mid-way through washing the dishes. The water ran down from his fingers to the floor. "Are you sure they would open in time? We are opening the shop an hour earlier tomorrow."

"They said they would make it in time. They are intending to start early tomorrow and end off early as well," I-pin explained while she made her way to the front of the store to lock all the doors and windows.

Far in the distance outside, there was a white van parked. It was parked at the junction directly before the store yet it was a vehicle which I-pin didn't recognize. She didn't recall ever seeing that same van anywhere before.

"There's two more days before you will be officially enrolled in Namimori High so remember to pick up your uniforms and textbooks after we close the store tomorrow. Kyouya has volunteered to help you out so you'll just have to find him. All the materials that you need are already paid for."

As I-pin watched, transfixed, a man climbed out of the van. Or rather, I-pin thought that it was a man since the silhouette suggested that the person was rather tall.

Two other figures were moving in the distance. One of them was struggling while the other was restraining the former. The two shadows moved closer the join the other one waiting at the hood of the vehicle. The door at the back of the van was lifted up and the struggling person was tossed in.

"I-pin? Are you listening to me?"

Fon's voice seemed dull and distant to I-pin as she involuntarily moved, pushing the door of the store open and stepped out. It was as if she was drawn by something – by a desire to be closer to the scene of crime. The chilly night air against her skin only served to spur her curiosity on.

"I-pin, what are you doing? Did you lock all the doors and windows already? It's late already and everyone in town should be asleep but we still shouldn't take our chances. The last time you-"

She ran. As she got closer and closer to the scene, she could hear muffled screams and furious banging against the interior of the van. This was a kidnapping case. Something inside of her muttered that fact – instincts maybe?

But this was change.

This might be that change which she was looking for.

* * *

><p><strong>Challenge this month: <strong>Guess the word which sums up the dark side of Chrome Dokuro's personality. The hint is that the word starts with the letter 'P' and ends with the letter 'S'. The first person who managed to guess the right word gets a short oneshot dedicated to him/her. Good luck, everyone!

**Author's note: **Chrome has finally appeared! I would like to believe that I portrayed her as normal as she is in the anime/manga, for the time being. Well, that being said, she isn't exactly the most normal person in this fanfiction. A brief description would be that she admires Mukuro but at the same time feels a sense of guilt for the life which her brother currently leads, including all his illegal jobs.

Initially I wanted to keep I-pin's personality normal (despite my warped opinion of normality) but along the way... To sum it up, I-pin is a young teenage girl bubbling with curiosity, and all she wants is to lead a life which is different from what she has now – and that is not because she hates her current life. Like I said, it's curiosity. The 'change' which she is seeking is change from her current life. A disparity, a different style of life, a change.

Last but not the least, thank you for the long wait! I hope that everyone who read up to this point has enjoyed all the previous chapters and would continue to support the later chapters.


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